Traditionally regarded as simple foot soldiers of the innate immune response limited to the eradication of pathogens, neutrophils recently emerged as more complex cells endowed with a set of immunoregulatory functions. Using a model of invasive pneumococcal disease, we highlighted an unexpected key role for neutrophils as accessory cells in innate interleukin (IL)-17A production by lung resident Vg6Vd1+ Tcells via nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain receptor, pyrin-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome-dependent IL-1b secretion. In vivo activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in neutrophils required both host-derived and bacterial-derived signals. Elaborately, it relies on (i) alveolar macrophagesecreted TNF-a for priming and (ii) subsequent exposure to bacterial pneumolysin for activation. Interestingly, this mechanism can be translated to human neutrophils. Our work revealed the cellular and molecular dynamic events leading to cdT17 cell activation, and highlighted for the first time the existence of a fully functional NLRP3 inflammasome in lung neutrophils. This immune axis thus regulates the development of a protective host response to respiratory bacterial infections.

Toxoplasma gondii est capable de moduler les différentes voies de l'apoptose afin de se disséminer et de persister dans les cellules du système nerveux central. Ce processus est mal décrit chez l'homme. Afin de mieux comprendre comment T. gondii pourrait interagir avec le mécanisme apoptotique des cellules hôtes nerveuses humaines, nous avons étudié dans un modèle in vitro de culture des trois types de cellules nerveuses humaines (cellules endothéliales, microgliales et neurones) infectées par les souches RH (type I) et PRU (type II) de T. gondii pendant 24 h et 48 h. Le taux d'apoptose de ces cellules infectées a été déterminé par Cytométrie en flux et quantifié par les techniques ELISA Cell Death et TUNEL. Les voies responsables de l'apoptose ont été définies au moyen des deux techniques, Western blot et ELISA. Les résultats montrent que seule la souche PRU induit un taux d'apoptose élevé dans les cellules endothéliales. Ceci est accompagné par une expression des caspases 8 et 3 qui pourrait impliquer la voie des récepteurs de mort. Dans les cellules microgliales, seules les techniques ELISA Cell Death et TUNEL montrent que la souche PRU induit l'apoptose, alors que la caspase 8 n'est pas significativement exprimée et que la caspase 3 est absente. Ceci indique que la voie de l'apoptose activée dans ces cellules infectées n'est pas dépendante des caspases. Dans les neurones, la souche RH induit un taux d'apoptose plus élevé que la souche PRU. Ce résultat est en accord avec l'expression des caspases 8 et 3. La détection et la quantification de l'apoptose induite dans les cellules nerveuses humaines activées en réponse à l'infection par les deux souches de T. gondii sont des outils utiles pour la compréhension de l'homéostasie du système immunitaire et le devenir du toxoplasme au niveau cérébral.

But :On compte environ 380000 nouveaux cas de cancers par an en France (surtout cancers du sein, de la prostate) et 7200 par an au Liban (cancers du sein, du poumon, de la prostate et de la vessie). Dans les deux pays, plus de la moitié de ces cas seront traités par radiothérapie. Une proportion non négligeable de ces patients, généralement estimée entre 10 et 15%, présente des réactions tissulaires qui peuvent limiter le bon déroulement du traitement, voire l'arrêter dans certains cas et augmenter la morbidité des patients. Ces réactions peuvent être par exemple des dermites et des érythèmes, mais aussi des rectites dans le cas des cancers de la prostate, des fibroses pour les cancers de l'œsophage et du poumon, etc. Ces réactions peuvent être précoces (quelques jours) ou tardives (plusieurs mois, voire des années), en fonction du type de tissus et de l'organe considéré et sont la manifestation d'un phenomène cellulaire et moléculaire: la radiosensibilité. Depuis 50 ans, la radiosensibilité cellulaire est définie in vitro comme étant la diminution de la capacité clonogénique des cellules irradiées, et son lien mathématique avec la dose a été décrit par la théorie de la cible. Parmi les nombreuses formules obtenues à partir de la théorie de la cible on retrouve le modèle linéaire-quadratique (LQ) qui est décrit par une fonction exponentielle négative d'un polynôme du second degré, avec αD la composante linéaire et βD2 la composante quadratique. Le modèle LQ est largement utilisé en radiobiologie (pour décrire les courbes de survie) et en radiothérapie (le rapport α/β indique si des réactions tissulaires précoces ou tardives peuvent apparaitre après le traitement). Toutefois, aucune interprétation biologique des paramètres du modèle LQ n'a été proposée pour expliquer: 1) la réponse tissulaire pour une large gamme de doses d'irradiations, 2) la radiosensibilité de certains syndromes génétiques causés par des mutations de protéines cytoplasmiques et 3) le phénomène d'hyper-sensibilité aux faibles doses.

Le modèle : à partir d'un nombre important de données expérimentales, nous avons émis l'hypothèse que la grande majorité des protéines d'ATM se trouvent sous forme de dimères cytoplasmiques qui sont monomérisés après une irradiation. Les monomères d'ATM résultants vont diffuser dans le noyau afin de facilité la reconnaissance et la réparation des cassures double-brin (CDB) de l'ADN. Ces hypothèses nous ont permis de proposer une interprétation cohérente du modèle LQ en prenant en compte le nombre des CDB reconnues mais non-réparées (de type α) et celui des CDB non-reconnues (de type β). De plus, la notion de la tolérance des cellules au nombre de CDB non-réparées a été introduite en considérant que toutes les CDB ne sont pas létales. Des données de survie cellulaire, ainsi que des données de reconnaissances et réparation des CDB obtenues par immunofluorescence provenant de 42 lignées de fibroblastes de peau et de 18 lignées tumorales humaines ont été utilisées pour vérifier la validité biomathématique du modèle proposé. Résultats : notre modèle est validé à différentes niveaux par l'une des plus larges gammes de radiosensibilité. Notre modèle permet aussi de décrire et d'expliquer le phénomène d'hypersensibilité aux faibles doses. De plus, ce travail a permit le développement de test predictifs de la radiosensibilité individuelle. Conclusion : ce modèle fournit une image très globale de la radiosensibilité humaine indépendamment du type cellulaire et du statut génétique

La transmission d'entérobactéries productrices de BLSE à l'Homme est une question majeure de santé publique, et les animaux de production sont souvent considérés comme une source potentielle de ces enzymes. Une récente étude menée sur des vaches au Liban a révélé une prévalence fécale élevée d'E. coli BLSE (notamment CTX-M-15) en portage sain. Le but de notre étude était de déterminer si de telles souches pouvaient également être trouvées dans le lait de vache sain, plus favorable à une transmission directe par voie alimentaire. La présence de souches productrices de carbapénémases a également été recherchée. En 2015, 154 échantillons de lait frai ont été prélevés dans 63 élevages différents situés au Nord Liban. Les entérobactéries BLSE et productrices de carbapénémases ont été recherchées sur milieux sélectifs (Mackonkey supplémenté avec du ceftazidime ou du méropénème) et l'identification confirmée par MALDI-TOF. Tous les isolats ont été caractérisés par antibiogramme en milieu gélosé, et les différents clones ont été typés par Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) et Multi-Locus Sequence Typing (MLST). La détection des gènes de résistance (blaCTX-M, blaTEM, blaSHV, blaOXA-48) a été effectuée par PCRs spécifiques et séquençage. La localisation des gènes identifiés a été déterminée par Southern blots sur des PFGE réalisés sur de l'ADN digéré avec la nucléase S1 (localisation plasmidique) ou l'enzyme I-CeuI (localisation chromosomique). Un total de 43 entérobactéries (43/154, 27,9%), dont 36 K. pneumoniae et 7 E. coli, présentaient un phénotype BLSE, et 30,2% (19/63) des fermes visitées étaient contaminées. Tous les isolats produisaient un enzyme CTX-M-15. Quatre souches de K. pneumoniae coproduisaient une enzyme SHV-12, et la seule souche résistante au méropénème était productrice d'une OXA-48. Les 7 E. coli appartenaient à un dérivé du ST5920 alors que les 36 K. pneumoniae appartenaient à un nombre très limité de clones (ST17 (n=9), ST219 (n=21), ST429 (n=5) et ST530 (n=1)). Tous les gènes blaCTX-M-15 identifiés chez E. coli étaient portés par des plasmides IncF, et tous ceux portés les K. pneumoniae ST17, ST429 et ST530 étaient portés par des plasmides de type IncFIIk. A contrario, les gènes blaCTX-M-15 identifiés dans le clone ST219 présentaient une localisation chromosomique. Le gène blaOXA-48 était porté par un plasmide de type IncL et localsié sur un transposon de type IS1999.2. Cette étude montre la dissémination de K. pneumoniae productrices de CTX-M-15 dans le lait de vache au Liban. Nous rapportons également la première souche de K. pneumoniae productrice d'OXA-48 dans du lait. Ce lait cru étant destiné à une consommation directe sans traitement thermique, ou alors intégré dans la filière agroalimentaire pour la fabrication de fromages et yaourts au lait cru, une contamination humaine par voie alimentaire est possible. Il semble que le Nord Liban connaisse une dissémination d'un nombre réduit de clones de K. pneumoniae, notamment du ST17 souvent décrit en médecine humaine. L'origine de cette dissémination est à étudier. La comparaison des plasmides porteurs du gène blaCTX-M-15 entre les K. pneumoniae isolées du lait et les E. coli isolés des fèces est en cours. Ces résultats montrent l'importance de surveiller les bactéries pathogènes au Liban, chez l'animal comme dans le secteur alimentaire.

The scene at which a crime takes place is often abundant with tiny traces, part of which could be used as evidences to reconstruct the crime scene. DNA traces could relate individuals to the scene and, consequently, indicate who were present. This particular field of forensic science has been revolutionized upon the establishment of DNA profiling in the mid-1980s. Forensic DNA has become an indispensable tool to help ensure justice by identifying perpetrators and more importantly by exonerating falsely accused or wrongfully convicted individuals. Individuals transfer biological traces carrying DNA that could be extracted to help identify the contributor. Forensic DNA interpretation requires the analysis of trace profiles as well as reference profiles. Usually, cases involve the comparison of a DNA profile obtained from a trace with a reference sample taken from the victim and/or the suspect(s). When there is no match i.e. the compared DNA profiles are from diverse sources, then the suspect could be cleared from being the contributor. However, when the suspect is not excluded a profile match probability is usually calculated between the suspect and the crime scene trace. Nevertheless, in forensic DNA case works, traces might originate from two or more contributors which are known as DNA mixtures. Nowadays, DNA mixtures represent an increasing fraction of forensic DNA casework. The probability of DNA mixture profile match with the suspect(s) profile is much more difficult to assess due to the multiple genotype possibilities, homozygosity and allele sharing between contributors. Additional DNA mixture challenges could also include allele drop outs, allele stacking, and stutter production. These challenges are further increased when the true DNA contributor and an innocent person, who was nowhere near the crime, belong to the same subpopulation and to a higher extent share a common grand ancestor. Consequently, it's highly possible to produce false links between crime scene traces and innocent persons should the assessment of the inbreeding effect is not performed and taken into consideration in the population under study. The Lebanese population is structured over eighteen religious communities that have very high endogamous marriage practices as well as increased consanguinity, amounting up to 88 and 36 percent, respectively. This study presents an assessment of the endogamy and consanguinity effect on the investigations involving DNA mixtures in the Lebanese population. For this purpose, Lebanese villages were targeted in an attempt to simulate cases where DNA mixture needs to be analyzed for a crime scene investigation. The possibility of false links between crime scene traces and an innocent person was assessed. Five Lebanese villages populated by individuals belonging to five different religious communities with high inbreeding rates were targeted. Two different DNA extraction protocols were performed, the Phenol: Chloroform: Isoamylalcohol (PCI) and the salting out protocol. A total of 28 STR systems were amplified therefore, three multiplex PCR kits were used; the PowerPlex 16HS®, the PowerPlex ESI17® and the PowerPlex CS7® (Promega Corporation; Madison, WI, USA). Capillary electrophoresis was conducted using the AB3130 Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA USA) and data was collected through the GeneMapper v4.0 software (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA USA). DNA mixture simulation studies were performed using an in-house DNA Mixture and Matching Simulator Software (DMMS). Mixtures were simulated electronically by combining each individual profile with each of all the other inhabitants of the same village, followed by matching between each simulated mixture and all the profiles observed in the village. Matching between a profile with a mixture generated by this same profile was excluded from the analysis. The purpose was to evaluate the number of profiles that could not be excluded from a mixture. Upon matching profiles to mixtures, 23,323 mixtures were simulated and 2,692,577 matching comparisons were performed on three different profile sizes: 15, 23 and 28 STR loci totaling 8,077,731 simulations. These simulations revealed the possibility of false inclusions using DNA profiles established with 15 STR systems. Three individuals showed a profile completely matching with a DNA mixture of which they were neither the true contributors nor related to these contributors. In one instance, two persons were falsely included in the same mixture. 29 individuals were tested with a profile completely matching with a DNA mixture of which they were not the true contributors but they were relatives to at least one of the contributors. In many instances, two or three persons were falsely included in the same mixture. When the number of systems was increased to 23 only part of these cases were solved. Interestingly, all false inclusion cases were solved only when 28 STR systems were used. These results show that if only 15 or even 23 genetic systems are used in an investigation involving a mixture DNA profile, innocent people from the same community are likely to be falsely included. The 28 system profile size has the potential to resolve these cases. Since it is not possible to prescribe rules for every conceivable situation, the intent is that more standardized mixture interpretation guidelines are established in order to reduce false inclusions and uncertainties in mixture analysis in populations with increased genetic relatedness like the Lebanese population. Taking into consideration the above mentioned results, we recommended that, in the Lebanese population, to calculate the probability of the profiles that could not be excluded from a DNA mixture, 28 STR systems need to be tested mandatorily. When using only 16 and 23 genetic systems for DNA mixture analysis non-matching profiles could be safely ruled out, but it is recommended not to assess inclusion probabilities when a complete match is observed. These recommendations could also be applied in other populations with high endogamy and consanguinity awaiting local assessment.

Introduction: Influenza A virus (IAV) is a negative-sense single strand RNA virus that belongs to Orthomyxovirus family. Annual influenza outbreaks are associated with significant morbidity and mortality worldwide despite the availability of seasonal vaccines. This is attributed to the fast-genetic evolution and high genetic diversity of the virus. Studies have shown that entrance, replication and release of many RNA viruses into host cells are mediated through cellular lipids. Ceramide, the backbone of most sphingolipids, acts as a potent second messenger in the regulation of diverse cellular mechanisms such as cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and senescence. Studies highlighted the differential role of the de novo ceramide synthesis pathway on virulence and life cycle of some viruses. For instance, the inhibition of ceramide biosynthesis pathway suppressed the replication and release of infectious West Nile virus particles, but it enhanced the replication and production of dengue virus. The interplay between influenza and ceramide pathways is not well-understood. Influenza virus modulates various cellular signaling pathways that overlap with the pathways regulated by ceramide. Thus, we hypothesize that ceramide produced through the de novo synthesis pathway is involved in the influenza virus life cycle and the cellular events occurring during infection. Methods: Wild-type influenza A/Peurto Rico/34/67 (PR8) strain (MOI:1) was used to infect adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549). Lipid extraction was done using the Bligh and Dyer method. Thin layer chromatography and confocal microscopy (ceramide antibody) were used to measure ceramide accumulation. The variation in gene expression and vRNA synthesis was measured using qRT-PCR with respect to housekeeping genes. Drug cytotoxity was assessed using MTT and trypan blue assays. Virus titer was quantified using plaque assay. Results: Significant Ceramide accumulation was observed starting 24 hpi (hours post infection) followed by a peak at 48 hpi. The expression of serine palmitoyl transferase (SPT) and ceramide synthase (CerS), enzymes regulating de novo ceramide biosynthesis, increased in response to IAV infection. The treatment of A549 cells with 0.1 µM myriocin and /or 50 µM fumonisin B1 potent inhibitors SPT and CerS respectively, for 2h prior infection resulted in a significant decrease in ceramide accumulation compared to untreated infected cells. This elevation in ceramide levels was accompanied by an increase in vRNA synthesis. Conclusion: This study proves that IAV infection mediates ceramide accumulation in lung epithelial cells mainly through the de novo biosynthesis. This increase in ceramide levels is involved in mediating cell death and has a minor effect on viral progeny.

Background and Purpose: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory and disabling disease characterized by widespread lesions affecting both white and gray matter. Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). More than 80% of MS patients experience fatigue on a regular basis and this affects their lives in multiple ways. There are several options for dealing with fatigue (pharmacological and non-pharmacological) therefore it is of crucial importance for health care professionals to measure fatigue during routine clinical visits. Since causes of fatigue remain unknown, and assessment of its severity during routine neurological examination is difficult, unless standardized questionnaires are used. MRI has become an important tool for the assessment of disease activity in MS. It allows the evaluation and monitoring of lesion load and brain atrophy.

Aim of the study: The aim of this study is to identify the functional aspects (cognitive, physical, or psychosocial) that are mostly affected by fatigue and that could be the resultant of gray matter (GM) atrophy in MS. In addition, the relationship between (1) cognitive impairment measured by the symbol digit modalities test (SDMT), (2) 8 meter walk with fatigue (as measured by the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS)) and MRI outcomes were assessed.

Sample Characteristics: Fifty-four relapsing remitting Multiple Sclerosis patients were recruited from the Nehme and Therese Tohme Multiple Sclerosis Center. Relapsing remitting and progressive MS patients were enrolled in this study and were asked to complete the "Modified Fatigue Impact Scale" (MFIS) which provides an assessment of fatigue in terms of physical, cognitive, and psychosocial functioning. Based on the MFIS sub-scores, patients were classified into four groups: those with physical, cognitive, or psychosocial fatigue and non-fatigued. Patients diagnosed with CIS, RRMS, or PMS according to the 2010 MC Donald's criteria and aged over 18 we included in this study. Patients who had an MS relapse within the past 4 weeks, or received IV steroids within the past 4 weeks or currently Pregnant or have a Major psychiatric disorder such as Schizophrenia / Psychotic Disorders, Dementia, etc. or have Neuromyelitis Optica or MS mimickers were excluded from this study.

Methods MRI examinations (3DT1 post-gadolinium and 3DFLAIR) at the time of the clinical assessment (±6 months) were reviewed. MRI image processing consisted first in the extraction of the brain from the cranial cavity in order to measure the intra-cranial volume (ICV). The extracted brain was then fed into an online MRI brain volumetry system (volBrain: volbrain.upv.es). volBrain is a pipeline of processes aimed to automatically analyze MRI brain data. It provides volume information of some macroscopic areas such as brain hemispheres, cerebellum and brainstem. Finally, automatic subcortical structure segmentation is performed and related volumes and label maps are provided. Linear regression was applied to measure the correlation between the MFIS fatigue score and the MRI volume measurements. The regression was adjusted for age, disease duration, EDSS, and depression.

Results: In multivariable linear regression and adjusting for age, disease duration, EDSS, and depression, there was a negative correlation between MFIS scores and ICV (standardized Beta= -0.54, P<0.0001) and a positive correlation with the volume of lateral ventricles (standardized Beta= 0.37, P=0.006) and all-ventricular volume (standardized Beta= 0.35, P=0.007). MFIS sub-scores of physical and cognitive fatigue showed also a similar correlation with ICV and lateral ventricles, whereas only cognitive fatigue correlated positively with all-ventricles volume. MFIS scores correlated negatively with thalamic volumes at the bivariate level (r= -0.27, P=0.045), but not in the regression model after adjusting for age, disease duration, EDSS, and depression.

Conclusion: Assessment of Fatigue using the MFIS score showed a positive correlation with global brain atrophy. Fatigued patients had greater atrophy rates than non-fatigued patients. These findings lend further support to the notion that damage to brain density contribute to MS fatigue.

Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a devastating medical and budding public health problem that is affecting individuals worldwide due to a huge number of factors including both military and non military war-related acts. Although mild traumatic brain injuries - concussions - had previously been deemed unimportant and are often ignored, currently mTBI and its long term sequelae are being referred as the "signature injury" of war conflicts affecting both civilian and military personnel equally.

Aims: Is to systematically review the status of TBI in Lebanon - a Middle Eastern country with a frail sectarian health system that suffered from several wars and multiple outbreaks of violence - for the purpose of identifying the available gaps in knowledge, to lead future research processes and to aid policy makers in developing pioneer rehabilitative policies.

Methods: Data sources: PubMed, OVID, Google Scholar and Scopus databases were lastly searched on April 15th, 2016 to identify all published research studies evaluating TBI in Lebanon. Study selection: Studies published in English and evaluated Lebanese patients suffering from TBI in Lebanon were included in this review. Reviews, case reports and conference abstracts were excluded. Data extraction and synthesis: Working independently and in duplicates two reviewers screened titles and abstracts for eligibility; data from eligible articles were abstracted to specifically prepared and piloted tables for the purpose of the study and performed the methodological assessment using the Downs and Black Checklist.

Results: Eleven studies in total studies were found eligible for inclusion in this review as they assessed Lebanese patients suffering from TBI on Lebanese soils. Enormous methodological variations were noticed among the eligible studies. Except for two that evaluated non-military injury mechanisms such as falls, motor vehicle accidents, etc. focused on TBI caused by combat related activities. Most of the studies evaluated TBI patients afflicted by TBI during the Lebanese civil war or Lebanese-Israeli conflict, up till the year 2000. Later studies also evaluated TBI patients due to the Lebanese-Israeli conflict in 2006 and consequences of cluster munitions post the end of the war. A total of 682 TBI cases were confirmed in Lebanon from all the eligible reviewed articles. Two peaks related to age of patients were identified, older adults aged 60 years and above and young adults between 18 and 40 years; males comprise the greater part. Mild TBI was reported only in three studies. Outcomes such as mortality, secondary systematic injuries and neuropsychological and rehabilitation efforts were scarcely reported Infections were the only complications reported.

Conclusion: As evident from above, TBI status and research in Lebanon endure several gaps that need to be filled, for the purpose of serving the TBI community in the country. Corner stone key elements include but not limited to, execution of more epidemiologic, basic, clinical and translational research in this field in the future.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of age-related dementia, where patients experience progressive cognitive disturbance and loss of memory. Glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) is an active proline-directed serine/threonine kinase that plays a central role in the pathogenesis of both sporadic and familial forms of AD. Over-activity of GSK3 is associated with memory impairment, tau hyper-phosphorylation, and increased β-amyloid production; all of which are hallmark characteristics of AD. Consequently, several studies have been initiated to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of an irreversible non-ATP competitive GSK-3β inhibitor, Tideglusib (TDG), in different neurological and neurodegenerative diseases including AD, progressive supranuclear palsy, and autism spectrum disorders. In the same context, GSK-3β is well-known to be involved in different signaling pathways, such as Wnt, mTOR, PI3K/Akt, MAPK, and p53, many of which are involved in the pathophysiology of different brain tumors, such as neuroblastoma and glioblastoma, both of which present a major scientific concern; neuroblastoma by being the most common extra-cranial solid tumor among babies and children, and glioblastoma by having one of the poorest prognoses and highest chance of recurrence. Therefore, we aimed in our study to assess the potency of this GSK-3β inhibitor drug, Tideglusib, in suppressing proliferation, viability, and invasiveness of human neuroblastoma and glioblastoma cells, SH-SY5Y and U251, respectively. We also aimed to assess its effect on the cancer stem cell population among these human neuroblastoma and glioblastoma cell lines using our previously established 3D sphere formation assay model. Methods: The anti-proliferative effect of TDG on these cell lines was studied in vitro using the MTT assay. Furthermore, the effect of TDG on the migratory potential of these cells was assessed using the wound-healing assay. Studying the effect of TDG on the cancer stem cells found within both cell lines was followed, through our previously established 3D neurosphere formation assay model within Matrigel™. Results: Tideglusib significantly inhibited survival of U251 and SH-SY5Y cell lines in a 2D model, in a dose- and time-dependent manners, while this effect was much more pronounced in the 3D culture neurospheres model. We found that TDG similarly decreased the proliferative activity of both U251 and SH-SY5Y cell lines, reaching an inhibitory effect of around 50% at 72hr at 25µM for U251 and 45% at 72hr at 25µM for SH-SY5Y. Moreover, TDG (25μM) significantly suppressed the wound closure of U251 and SH-SY5Y cells by 50% and 32%, respectively, while the untreated cells were able to almost completely close the wound of both cell lines at 48 hours, suggesting reduction in the migratory ability of neuroblastoma and glioblastoma cells with TDG. Noteworthy, TDG abolished the sphere formation capability of SH-SY5Y and U251 cells by targeting their cancer stem/progenitor cell population in a dose-dependent manner. It led to a decrease in the size and progressive decrease in the number of cultured spheres in a dose- dependent manner, where number of spheres was significantly decreased in both cell lines at 0.1, 1 and 5µM of TDG. Conclusion: Tideglusib proved to be an effective in vitro treatment for neuroblastoma and glioblastoma brain tumors, by irreversibly inhibiting GSK-3β and thus targeting different signaling pathways, such as Wnt, mTOR, PI3K/Akt, MAPK, and p53, which are involved in the pathophysiology of both brain tumors. Inhibiting GSK-3β by TDG may hence serve as a common therapeutic target between Alzheimer's Disease and brain tumors. Further work shall follow to assess the number and size of cultured neurospheres, in a dose-dependent manner, over several consecutive generations of sphere-formation, and later on animal models to prove its in vivo efficacy as an adjuvant to the commonly used therapies for brain tumors.

Introduction: Dans la prise en charge orthophonique, la rééducation conventionnelle peut s'avérer insuffisante. L'éducation thérapeutique du patient (ETP) vient compléter cette thérapie dans le but d'optimiser ses résultats. L'objectif de cette étude est d'évaluer l'impact d'un atelier éducatif sur les fausses routes destiné au patient dysphagique et à son aidant familial, inspiré de l'ETP, sur l'adhésion à la prise en charge orthophonique conventionnelle (PECO) et la qualité de vie (QDV). Cet atelier inspiré de l'ETP est composé de trois axes ciblant: -la compréhension de la déglutition normale et l'explication des fausses routes, -le repérage et l'analyse des signes cliniques des fausses routes, -le choix des aliments à risque causant les fausses routes.

Matériel et Méthode: Dans cette étude randomisée, l'intervention se déroule pendant trois mois sur 16 patients. La sélection des sujets est faite selon des critères d'inclusion et d'exclusion. Les critères d'inclusion sont: -Avoir une dysphagie et/ou avoir un proche diagnostiqué d'une dysphagie. -Suivre une prise en charge orthophonique. -Etre âgé de plus de 18 ans. -Passer plus que 6 heures par jour avec le patient dysphagique (pour l'aidant familial). Les critères d'exclusion sont: -Au début de l'étude: si le patient dysphagique présente une atteinte cognitive et l'aidant familial est analphabète. -Au cours de l'étude: si une complication apparaît chez le patient entrainant un arrêt de la prise en charge orthophonique. L'échantillon recruté est randomisé et reparti en deux groupes: -Le groupe expérimental (GE) est composé de 8 patients dysphagiques et de leurs aidants familiaux, suivant une PECO conventionnelle à laquelle s'ajoute une séance de l'atelier éducatif après avoir rempli le formulaire du recueil des données. -Le groupe contrôle (GC) est constitué de 8 patients dysphagiques et leurs aidants familiaux suivant uniquement une PECO conventionnelle. Les patients des deux groupes bénéficient d'un suivi orthophonique individuel à raison de deux séances par semaine de 45 minutes. L'évaluation de l'impact de cet atelier se base sur quatre questionnaires auto-administrés et deux échelles: (1) L'Arabic-Dysphagia Handicap Index (A-DHI) évaluant la perception du patient de son handicap, (2) Les items du Caregiver Mealtime and Dysphagia Questionnaire (CMDQ) traduits en arabe évaluant l'adhésion à la PECO, (3) LebEAT-10 évaluant la sévérité de la dysphagie, (4) Une échelle de QDV en arabe standard inspirée par l'échelle de différenciation sémantique d'Osgood, (5) Une échelle intégrée à la fin du questionnaire du A-DHI évaluant le degré de sévérité de la dysphagie, (6) Un questionnaire construit par l'orthophoniste chercheuse en arabe standard évaluant la connaissance liée aux fausses routes. Les questionnaires et les échelles sont remplis à deux reprises: Pour (GE), pré-test (T0 après avoir signé le consentement libre et éclairé et avant la séance de l'atelier éducatif), post-test 1 (T1 après la séance de l'atelier éducatif). Pour (GC), pré-test (T0 après avoir signé le consentement libre et éclairé), post-test 1 (T1 après une semaine).

Résultats: Les résultats montrent que les moyennes des scores obtenus aux questionnaires et aux échelles en pré-test sont homogènes chez les deux groupes (le GC et le GE) au départ, sauf pour le score de l'échelle de sévérité de la dysphagie intégrée à la fin du questionnaire du A-DHI qui est plus sévère chez le GC. Une différence significative entre les scores du questionnaire de connaissance liée aux fausses routes (p-value=.008) et de l'échelle de qualité de vie (p-value=.04) est obtenue au pré-test et au post-test 1 pour le GE uniquement. La différence n'est pas significative aux scores des questionnaires A-DHI évaluant la perception du patient de son handicap et à son échelle, et au questionnaire du CMDQ évaluant l'adhésion de l'aidant familial à la PECO, pour les deux groupes.

Conclusion: L'amélioration significative de la qualité de vie et les connaissances sur les fausses routes chez le GE montre un résultat encourageant vérifiant l'impact positif de l'atelier sur les fausses routes inspiré de l'ETP. Afin d'avoir des résultats plus probants, il faudrait continuer l'étude en incluant un nombre plus grand de patients, en augmentant la fréquence de l'atelier éducatif et en adaptant le CMDQ car il s'est avéré trop compliqué à remplir par les patients et à interpréter par les chercheurs dans cette étude pilote.

Références: 1 Farahat, M., et al. (2014). Development of the Arabic Version of Dysphagia Handicap Index (DHI). Dysphagia, 29(4), 459-467. 2 Colodny, N. (2008). Validation of the Caregiver Mealtime and Dysphagia Questionnaire (CMDQ). Dysphagia, 23(1), 47-58. 3 Ghaddar Z., Nehme, M., Bou Nader, R. & Matar, N. (2015). The Lebanese Arabic version of the eating assessment tool (LebEAT-10). Poster Presentation at the European Society of Swallowing Disorders 5th Meeting, Barcelona, Spain. 4 D'Ivernois, J.-F. & Gagnayre, R. (2011). Apprendre à éduquer le patient. Approche pédagogique. (4eme édition). Paris, France: Maloine.

Le virus d'Epstein et Barr (EBV) est un herpèsvirus humain pour lequel il existe deux types distincts, A et B. Ces virus sont de répartition mondiale et infectent plus de 90% des adultes. L'infection s'effectue dans la petite enfance et la transmission est principalement salivaire. La primo-infection est souvent asymptomatique, mais lorsqu'elle est symptomatique, elle est responsable de la mononucléose infectieuse. Suite à la primo-infection, le virus entre en latence, et persiste toute la vie dans l'organisme. A côté des manifestations liées à la primo-infection, l'EBV est décrit pour être associé aux : lymphome africain de Burkitt, carcinome du nasopharynx ,lymphome de Hogkin et lymphomes non-hodgkiniens chez les immunodéprimés (transplantés, séropositifs pour le VIH). Le lymphome T angio-immunoblastique (LTAI) a été décrit dans les années 70. Il fait partie des lymphomes T périphériques. Cette pathologie représente environ 2% des lymphomes non hodgkiniens. Elle touche majoritairement des sujets âgés de plus de 50 ans et le sex ratio est de 1. Cliniquement, elle se manifeste par une lymphadénopathie généralisée, avec hépatosplénomégalie et hypergammaglobulinémie polyclonale. Il s'agit d'une pathologie agressive, rarement accessible à la thérapeutique, à pronostic sombre : la médiane de survie est inférieure à 5 ans. Les cellules néoplasiques sont des lymphocytes T à cytoplasme clair dérivant des cellules folliculaires T helper. L'EBV est toujours trouvé dans les cellules B et occasionnellement dans les cellules néoplasiques T. L'EBV est-il un élément précipitant la maladie ou un simple passager ?A l'heure actuelle, la plupart des auteurs s'accordent pour dire que l'EBV ne serait pas impliqué dans le LTAI, arguant de la présence virale seulement dans une sous-population de cellules, suggèrant que l'infection est secondaire à la transformation et du nombre de cellules B EBV positives très variable d'un patient à l'autre. Certains avancent l'hypothèse d'une réactivation virale due à un défaut de surveillance des cellules T. Mais on peut constater que peu d'études ont été faites sur le sujet. Par exemple, on ne sait pas si le virus est présent sous une forme lytique ou sous une forme latente et dans ce dernier cas, quelles protéines sont exprimées. Ces questions sont importantes à résoudre afin d'y voir plus clair sur la physiopathologie de cette maladie. Notre laboratoire s'est précédemment intéressé à la protéine LMP1 du virus EBV de patients atteints de lymphome NK/T et a montré la présence d'une délétion de 10 acides aminés dans la moitié des patients associée a des substitutions pouvant modifier le comportement protéique. Ces résultats intéressants nous ont amenés à penser que le virus peut aussi présenter des modifications sur d'autres parties de son génome et que ces modifications pourraient induire un comportement viral et/ou une réponse cellulaire différents.

Objectifs Dans ce contexte, notre travail consiste à étudier la séquence virale complète de l'EBV au sein des biopsies issues de patients atteints de LTAI et à comparer cette séquence aux résultats obtenus pour des lymphomes B ainsi qu'aux séquences publiées afin de déterminer si un virus particulier est associé à cette pathologie.D'autre part , il sert à apporter des précisions sur la physiopathologie du LTAI comparativement à d'autres lymphomes vu la possibilité d'observer des virus plus oncogènes qui seraient retrouvés plus sépcifiquement dans une pathologie donnée.Cette connaissance permettra de mieux cerner les mécanismes de la lymphomagenèse et d'envisager à terme, une approche thérapeutique.

Matériels Le travail était commencé par la mise au point sur des lignées, afin de ne pas sacrifier le matériel humain. Nous disposons au laboratoire de diverses lignées (lignées NK, lignées de lymphome B et lignées de Burkitt), nous permettant de valider les techniques, et donnant déjà des indications intéressantes. Puis on a travaillé sur 22 biopsies congelées issues de différents types de lymphomes dont 15 sont des LTAI.

Méthodes Sachant que LTAI contiennent un faible nombre de copies d'EBV, il était nécessaire d'enrichir en génome viral. Pour cela , on a désigné des sondes spécifques du génome de l'EBV et utilisé la technique capture par sonde nimblegen chez Roche. Le séquencage est fait sur Illumina Miseq.Différents logiciels d'analyse ont été utilisés et la validation était effectuée par la technique de Sanger, notamment de régions posant problème. La comparaison aux souches de référence, permettra de détecter les variations simple nucléotide (SNV) et les insertions ou délétions (indels). La comparaison des gènes impliqués dans la latence est effectuée de manière particulièrement attentive. La comparaison des résultats obtenus pour les patients atteints de LTAI avec ceux obtenus pour les lymphomes B était réalisée.

Résultats Concernant le séquencage des lignées cellulaires, la profondeur moyenne était 3792 fois avec une couverture du génome viral entre 94.86% et 98.15 %. Le séquencage Sanger fait sur 5 gènes de l'EBV a donné des résultats identiques ce qui a validé la technique. Pour les biopsies de patients, dans un premier temps, la sensibilité de la technique de séquençage était estimée, c'était 100 000 copies/microgrammes d'ADN ce qui nous a permis de retenir que 14 patients pour la suite de l'analyse bioinformatique. La profondeur était entre 31.2 et 22987 fois avec une couverture virale moyenne de 97%. Il s'agit que de l'EBV1 chez tous les patients. Dans un deuxième temps, et en assemblant de novo, on a obtenu les séquences du génome viral avec N pour les gaps.Le nombre de contigs allant de 17 jusqu'au 57 et la taille totale moyenne reconstruite était de 142000bp. Enfin, et après l'alignement avec le génome de référence (NC_007605), 2000 mutations ont été détecté en total dont 1602 substitutions, 190 insertions et 208 délétions. Les mutations non synonymes étaient reparties sur les différentes catégories de protéines de l'EBV avec une supériorité au niveau des gènes de latence.

Discussion et conclusion 10 génomes d'EBV issus des lymphomes LTAI ont été séquencés après l'enrichissement par capture. La fréquence de l'EBV1 revient à l'hypothèse qu'il est ubiquitaire. Plusieurs mutations non synonymes caractéristiques de LTAI ont été détectés et principalement aux niveaux de gènes de latence d'où la présence d'une souche virale importante dans les LTAI pouvant jouer un rôle dans la lymphomagenèse et ensuite être une cible thérapeutique.

Blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) are the most important insect evidence for estimating the minimum post-mortem interval (PMI min). Their rapid identification is crucial as it saves the time of rearing them in to adults especially for case investigations. Previous studies have proved the potential use of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHs) for the determination of Diptera age, especially the first instars that are morphologically similar. Though, most of the work was based on rearing the flies in lab conditions neglecting the effect of weather conditions, bacteria and other microorganisms attack that are challenging in real cases and may alter the hydrocarbons profiles. The aim of our study was to investigate the CHs profiles using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) at different immature stages in the blow fly Lucilia sericata which were reared in field conditions. Furthermore, hydrocarbon profiles derived from other contaminating larvae were also considered. Thirty five hydrocarbons were extracted from different stages and the Principle Component Analysis (PCA) was used to differentiate distinct CHs profiles of the larval specimens. This work is a preliminary analysis of CHs of flies reared in field, more rigorous research in different conditions in Lebanon supports the reliability of insects evidence for forensic investigations in the country.

Development of a Theoretical Framework for Retaining Fresh Graduates through Job Satisfaction

Carole Serhan1, Haritini Tsangari2 1,2School of Business, University of Nicosia, 46 Makedonitissas Avenue, Engomi, P.O.Box 24005, 1700 Nicosia, Cyprus

carole.serhan@balamand.edu.lb tsangari.h@unic.ac.cy

One of the most considerable challenges for today's labor markets lies in maintaining a secure workplace that fresh graduates who are known for their high productivity potentials and ambitions would like to remain with and outsiders wish to be employed into. Hence, managers' primary concern is the retention of their most outstanding fresh graduates which can be attained only by keeping them motivated and satisfied. The increased competition, demand for work efficiency and globalization resulted in more difficult employment conditions which have led to an increased exposure of workers to critical core job dimensions and to a significant increase in unfavorable personal and work outcomes (Millan et al., 2011). As a result, several managers have implemented downsizing and restructuring approaches (Ugboro, 2006) which have ended in creating feelings of job anxiety and lack of commitment (Rosseau & Libuser, 1997), desires to give up and decreased retention (ibid.). Indeed, decreased retention is a severe menace to the efficiency of restructuring approaches and to the organizational sustainability as well. This threat is explained by the high costs of fresh graduates' replacements and the heavy investments in terms of time to bring the new recruited fresh graduates to the desired level of performance (Mitchell et al., 2001). A thorough assessment of the high costs helps organizations to understand the enormity of this serious challenge and to evaluate the consequences on long term organizational and labor market effectiveness (Olorunsola, 2012). In fact, legal authorities and managers worldwide are now more and more recognizing the high significance of retaining their talented fresh graduates. Notwithstanding its significance, only few studies have examined the topic of fresh graduates' retention (Serhan et al, 2016). Most of the previous studies (Eisenberger et al., 2002) focus more on employees' job satisfaction than fresh graduates' retention. For this reason, this present research will refer to literature about employee job satisfaction and indirectly deduct factors relevant to the issue of fresh graduates' retention. The variety of factors which increase the feeling of job satisfaction among employees has been considered and consequently those factors which match with fresh graduates' job satisfaction are suggested as interventions. An effort has been made to fill the gap of what should be done to increase the degree of fresh graduates' job satisfaction, to increase the degree of organizational commitment and to maximize organizational and labor market outcomes through increasing the stay of these fresh graduates. This research particularly spotlights the meaning of fresh graduates' job satisfaction and focuses on the difference between an employee and a fresh graduate's psychological state toward the same core job dimensions. It further explores the dimensions and outcomes of fresh graduates' job satisfaction, satisfaction-retention process and outcomes of retention. Besides, it suggests a theoretical framework which summarizes the major determinants of fresh graduates' job satisfaction and ultimately of fresh graduates' retention based on theoretical review of the research studies and of the few models which depict the correlation between job satisfaction and its positive outcomes. This theoretical framework is to be tested in the Lebanese context through collecting a sample of Lebanese fresh graduates for the validation of the framework for use in larger scale studies. Finally, it provides critical remarks and noteworthy implications for practitioners, managers and legal authorities through filling the gap in literature with regards to fresh graduates' retention and denoting a full process that should end up with a robust labor market where the majority of its fresh graduates are retained. This process combines the various factors from the extant literature which influence job satisfaction and employment retention. The proposed theoretical framework thus takes into consideration the core job dimensions (e.g. participation, work load, working conditions, physical effort, technology use, promotion, social environment and others) which are assumed to influence the experienced psychological states of an individual (e.g. experienced meaningfulness of the work, experienced responsibility for outcomes of the work, knowledge of the actual results of the work, self-esteem and prestige inside outside), the individual differences (e.g. age, gender, education, social rank and culture) which are expected to play a moderating role in the relationship between core job dimensions and personal/work outcomes (e.g. motivation, growth satisfaction, general satisfaction, work effectiveness and commitment) (Hackman and Oldham, 1976, 1980) and labor market conditions (e.g. geographical location, unionization, labor status, job matching, private and public sector, foreign and national workers, formal and informal jobs and educational and labor market gap) which should have a great impact on personal/work outcomes as well. The combination of these factors joined together is hypothesized to affect the labor market outcome (retention of fresh graduates). References Eisenberger, R., Stinglhamber, F., Vandenberghe, C., Sucharski, I.L. and Rhoades, L. (2002), Perceived supervisor support: contributions to perceived organizational support and employee retention, Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(3), 565-73. Hackman, J.R. & Oldham G.R. (1976). Motivation through the design of work: test of a theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance. 16, 250 - 279. Hackman, J.R. & Oldham G.R. (1980). Work Redesign. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley. Millan, J.M., Hessels, J., Thurik, R. and Aguado, R. (2011), Determinants of job satisfaction across the E.U. -15: A comparison of self-employed and paid employees, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper. Mitchell, T.R., Holtom, B.C. and Lee, T.W. (2001), How to keep your best employees: developing an effective retention policy, Academy of Management Executive, 15(4), 96-108. Rosseau, D. And Libuser, C. (1997), Contingent workers in high-risk environment, California Management Review, 39(2), 103-23. Olorunsola, E. O. (2012). Job Satisfaction and Personal Characteristics of Administrative Staff in South West Nigeria Universities. Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies. 3 (1), 46 - 50. Serhan, C., Tsangari, H., Sanchez Bengoa, D. & Mekdessi S. (2016). Fresh graduates' retention: A review of literature. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 18 (2), 51 - 64. Ugboro, I.O. (2006), Organizational Commitment, Job Redesign, Employee Empowerment and Intent to quit among survivors of Restructuring and Downsizing, Institute of Behavioral and Applied Management, 232-257.

Keywords Fresh Graduates; Job Satisfaction; Employment Retention; Satisfaction Retention Process

Banking Secrecy and Anti-Money Laundering: Case Study of Lebanese Banks

Carole Serhan1, Sandy Mikhael2, Silvana El Warrak3 1,2,3University of Balamand, Issam M. Fares Faculty of Technology, Business Management and Administration Department, Deir El Balamand, P.O. Box 100, Tripoli, Lebanon. carole.serhan@balamand.edu.lb sandy.mikhael@std.balamand.edu.lb silvana.elwarrak@std.balamand.edu.lb

Banking secrecy laws have always been a privilege for customers, while anti-money laundering procedures have been considered as security measures to assure community safety. Indeed, achieving a proper balance is a dilemma which many legislative authorities face. In this issue it should be stated that the terrorists' attacks of the 11th of September 2001 urged the United States of America and the United Nations to set strict rules so as to limit the worldwide money laundering attempts and terrorism's financing (Manouk, 2004). Accordingly, the United Nations adopted the Resolution 1373 and urged all countries to cooperate by setting rules to prevent, eliminate and criminalize the trials of terrorists' financing and money laundering in their territories (Gates, 2006). Besides, the Group of Seven affirmed in 2002 their willingness to fight against terrorism and to block the assets of terrorists. Afterward, they asked the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to help them in this issue (Mani, 2003). As a result of this worldwide war against terrorism, Lebanon urged its Central Bank to combat money laundering through founding a Special Investigation Committee named hereafter SIC (Government of Lebanon, 2001). This committee, supported by Law 318 of April 20, 2001 (Anti-Money Laundering), was allowed to collect, examine and evaluate reports of doubtful transactions considering money laundering (ibid.). Nevertheless, Lebanon was urged to establish a connection with the Terrorist Financing Convention lunched by the United Nations and to review some parts of its laws primarily the banking secrecy law. In fact, the pressure of the international requirements in addition to the contradictions in the Lebanese banking system have made it very complicated for Lebanon to establish an equilibrium between the banking secrecy law and the anti-money laundering rules (Coulibaly, 2011; El Chalouhi, 2014; Maalouf, 2015). In this issue, one query is raised: How the Lebanese Government will be able to fully adopt the anti-money laundering rules and to fight against the financing of terrorism and at the same time preserve its longstanding banking secrecy practices? The importance of this study remains in the contradictions surrounding the topic where no academic researchers have formerly argued this subject despite the huge necessity to discover the effects of the twenty first century threats and to evaluate the most likely outcomes of the divergence between international anxiety and local political administrations. In view of this gap and taking into consideration the significance of the topic, this study aims to discuss the banking secrecy laws and investigate their consequences with regards to the anti-money laundering rules in Lebanon. Throughout this study, the collection of primary and secondary data was achieved since both were essential to build a robust synopsis of the present situation. Definitely, the extant Lebanese laws concerning banking secrecy and combating money laundering were discussed. Additionally, a qualitative study was carried out through applying the interview technique with four directors of different Lebanese banks. These directors were selected according to the purposive sampling technique and interviews were conducted between February and June 2016. The method of face-to-face interview with open ended questions has been chosen as the best fit in this case so as to reach the population of banking directors and top management that cannot be gathered into one focus group due to their big responsibilities and tough schedules and to gather different opinions related to the role of Lebanese banks especially in fighting against money laundering and the balance to keep with bank secrecy laws. Data analysis were conducted through using Nvivo, a computer-aided text analysis software program which can store data in a systematic way, provide hierarchies and structures of data, conduct specific analytical tasks and respond to questions that the researcher inserts to the data, therefore facilitating the life of the qualitative researcher and enhancing research productivity (Gummesson, 2005). Results of the study revealed that the Lebanese banking secrecy rules should be adjusted so as to facilitate the procedure of disclosing the necessary data about clients with suspicious transactions without harming the customers' confidentiality. Ultimately, the rising threat of violence and wide-reaching money laundering give good reason for the amendment of these laws and this justifies the urgent need for an indefinite collaboration of banks so as to minimize the probable risks (Serhan, 2016; Serhan et al., 2016). Finally, guiding principles which concern researchers, practitioners, banks' management and official authorities of Lebanon are granted enabling them to enhance the strength and solidity of the financial and monetary system and the safety of the local economy.

References Coulibaly, S. (2011). Le secret bancaire et la lutte contre le blanchiment des capitaux. Sayoncoul. El Chalouhi, N. (2014). Le secret bancaire Libanais résistera-t-il au blanchiment d'argent ? Bulletin FMI. Gates, A. (2006). Buildings Rise from Rubble while Health Crumbles. The New York Times. Retrieved 2015 - 03 - 17. Government of Lebanon (2001). Law no. 318 of April 20, 2001 "Fighting Money Laundering". Extract from the Official Gazette-Number 20-April 26, 2001. Gummesson, E. (2005). Qualitative research in marketing. European Journal of Marketing, 39(3/4), 309-327. DOI: 10.1108/03090560510581791. Maalouf, A. (2015). Il reste beaucoup à faire pour lutter contre le blanchiment d'argent, L'Orient Le Jour. Retrieved on 16/5/2015. Mani, M. (2003). L'Union Européenne dans la lutte contre le blanchiment d'argent. L'Harmattan, Paris. Manouk, V. (2004). Genèse du processus de blanchiment d'argent - Analyse conceptuelle: traces de l'expression en économie médiévale pré-capitaliste, Revue Internationale de Criminologie et de Police Technique et Scientifique (RICPTS), Vol. 4: 3, pp. 323-338. Serhan, C. (2016). Economic Challenges and Reform Options: Case Study of Syrian Banks. Germany: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing. ISBN: 978-3-330-02607-0. Serhan, C., Mikhael, S. & El Warrak, S (2016). Anti-Money Laundering Rules and the Future of Banking Secrecy Laws: Evidence from Lebanon. Journal of International Finance and Banking, 3 (2), 148 - 161.

Keywords Banking Secrecy; Money Laundering; Banks; Economy; Lebanon

Due to the rapid growth in population, more energy is needed for heating and cooling. Geothermal energy is greatly exploited for several applications such as electricity production, space heating and geothermal heat pump [1]. Ground source heat pump system is the most effective-environmentally friendly solution [2]. It works under the same principle as HVAC but utilizes constant underground temperature to perform the same function (heating and cooling) and minimal maintenance is required [3]. This paper presents a software to compute the pipe length for horizontal closed loop systems. The study was done for single borehole in cooling mode. Parameters that were taken under study were the nominal diameter, ground temperature and inlet and outlet temperature.

In the recent years, there is variety of research about the most appropriate cost accounting system for healthcare institutions, indicating that the traditional cost accounting systems may have lost some relevance to management and other information users. Many researchers suggested changes to cost accounting systems. This paper aims to analyze the satisfaction level of cost accounting information users in Lebanese healthcare institutions, with the intention of establishing how those users view the relevancy of current cost accounting systems in achieving the objective of modern managerial accounting according to Berliner and Brimson. This paper takes a more exploratory approach with the intention of establishing how management accounting information users in Lebanese healthcare institutions, view the relevancy of the current applied cost accounting systems in achieving management accounting objectives. The objectives of this paper are: 1. To examine the satisfaction level of managerial accounting information users by the applied management accounting systems role in achieving management accounting objectives according to Berliner and Brimson. 2. To examine the accuracy level of indirect cost allocation between revenue centers at hospitals. For the aim of this paper, a survey was conducted on random sample of management accounting information users in Lebanese healthcare institutions. The survey was analyzed using descriptive statistics techniques.

Tourism is developing day by day, but some events might strike over and affect its development. Political Crisis can damage tourism if the media worked in parallel with the bad situation the country is facing. The main aim of this article is to discuss the effect of media on tourism and how to find solutions to this problem through building safety zones in Lebanon. Cases from different countries were applied like Tunisia, Cyprus, Egypt, Persian Gulf, Istanbul, Bali, and France, and for building safety zones, a criterion was proposed.

Introduction

Les concepts de l'inflation et du chômage sont des phénomènes économiques les plus importantes, qui font face à toute économie dans le monde. L'inflation désigne une augmentation durable, générale et auto-entretenue des prix des biens et des services et le chômage est la situation d'une personne qui, souhaitant travailler et ayant la capacité de le faire, se trouve sans emploi malgré ses recherches. Nous cherchons dans notre étude à étudier la relation (s'il existe) entre le chômage et l'inflation à court terme et à long terme, afin d'essayer de proposer des solutions pour diminuer les taux d'inflation et du chômage.

Matériel et méthodes Le test de causalité de Granger est adopté pour vérifier la relation entre les variables et le sens de la causalité. On a trois possibilités pour la modélisation pour tester l'existence de causalité de Granger: - Le modèle Vecteur Autorégressif (VAR) - Le modèle Vecteur Autorégressif avec différenciation - Le modèle vectoriel à correction d'erreur (MVCE) Mais avant la sélection d'un de ces modèle, il faut savoir que ce test est sensible à: la stationnarité, l'ordre d'intégration et la co-intégration des variables. Les tests de Dickey-Fuller augmenté (ADF) et Phillips-Perron (PP) sont appliqués pour tester l'ordre stationnaire et l'ordre d'intégration des séries, tandis que la procédure de Johansen-Juselius est effectuée pour explorer l'existence de co-intégration entre les variables.

Résultats Les résultats des tests de stationnarité Dickey-Fuller augmenté (ADF) et Phillips-Perron (PP) révèlent que les deux séries ne sont pas stationnaires car les valeurs observées en valeur absolu sont plus petites que les valeurs critiques (au risque 5%) en valeur absolu, mais la différenciation de ces deux séries sont stationnaires. La procédure de Johansen-Juselius révèlent qu'il existe un vecteur de co-intégration, par suite les deux séries sont co-intégrées est cette procédure nous donnes deux équations: 〖INF〗(t-1) = -0,143×〖CHO〗(t-1) + 11,688 〖CHO〗(t-1) = -6,958×〖INF〗(t-1) + 81,333 Par suite, on est obligé d'utiliser le modèle vectoriel à correction d'erreur (MVCE) pour tester l'existence de causalité entre ces deux séries: ∆〖CHÔ〗_t= α1+ ∑(i=1)^m▒〖β1i ∆CHÔ〗(t-i) +∑_(i=1)^m▒〖β2i ∆INF〗(t-i) +β3 μ(t-1)+ε_1i (e.1) 〖∆INF〗_t= α2+ ∑(i=1)^m▒〖β4i ∆INF〗(t-i) + ∑_(i=1)^m▒〖β5i ∆CHÔ〗(t-i) +β6 ŋ(t-1) +ε_2i (e.2) Le choix du nombre de retard effectivement employés du modèle a été affecté à la Critère d'information de Schwarz (SIC), critère d'information d'Akaike (AIC) où elles révèlent le retard d'ordre 1 pour ce modèle MVCE. Par suite, le modèle sera: ∆〖CHÔ〗_t= α_1+ 〖β1 ∆CHÔ〗(t-1)+〖β2 ∆INF〗(t-1)+β3 μ(t-1)+ε_1i (e.3) 〖∆INF〗_t= α_2+ 〖β4 ∆INF〗(t-1)+ 〖β5 ∆CHÔ〗(t-1)+β6 ŋ(t-1) +ε_2i (e.4) Les résultats d'estimation de ces deux équations: (e.3 ): ∆〖CHÔ〗t= - 0.121 -0.290×∆〖CHÔ〗(t-1)-0.0004×〖∆INF〗(t-1)-0.0002×μ(t-1) +ε_1i Les paramètres de cette équation sont non significatifs car tous les valeur-p ont été supérieur à 0,05. (e.4): 〖∆INF〗t=-5,56 〖-0,05×∆INF〗(t-1) 〖-0,48×∆CHÔ〗(t-1)-0,741×ŋ(t-1) 〖+ε〗_2i Seul le paramètre β_6 (= 0,741) a été significatif avec une p-valeur < 0.0001, donc le chômage a une causalité à long terme sur l'Inflation.

Conclusion Notre étude montre que le chômage est la variable la plus importante qui influence l'inflation. L'augmentation de taux de chômage permet de diminuer le taux d'inflation. Une augmentation de taux de chômage permet de diminuer le pouvoir d'achat (la capacité d'achat en termes de biens et services), et la demande agrégée (la demande totale de biens et services dans une économie) diminue. Cette diminution de pouvoir d'achat et ensuite la diminution de la demande agrégée conduit à une diminution des prix et donc une diminution de l'inflation selon le modèle demande agrégée-offre agrégée.

Game theory allows describing and analyzing many economic and social relationships in the form of strategic games with many players. The crucial difficulty in game theory problems is how to perceive and how to view as clear as possible the combination of different situations when more than two players are concerned. For that, a new game form is here proposed for solving Nash equilibria problems with pure and mixed strategies using tensors and their proper operations. Tensor form will update the normal form of a game, and will help with tensors tools to write formulas and find results in a newly suitable way. In other words, we propose an extension of the normal form adopted by game theorists into a form that can visualize and solve many problems attached to game theory in a more practical way. This new form is based on a combination between game theory and multilinear algebra represented by tensors. It will be called Tensorial Normal form of a game. Recently, tensors occupy a very important place in the mathematical representation of data. We will just give the useful definition of tensors without entering in multilinear algebra approaches, to focus on the utility of tensors in game theory. Tensors will be defined as a generalization of matrices or multidimensional arrays. They will be with their proper operations useful for game theory study through investigating in more equilibrium problems. The last contribution of our work will consist in applying the methods developed to ones relating to general equilibrium and trade to economic problems

Extended Abstract Introduction: According to Cisco's Visual Networking Index data traffic update, global mobile data traffic grew 63 % in 2016, exceeding 7.2 exabytes per month by the end of last year. These figures are expected to grow seven folds by the year 2021. Current half-duplex wireless communication systems are likely to soon fall short of satisfying the need for larger data rates. These systems allocate a radio resource exclusively to one user equipment (UE) either for transmission or reception. This limits the capability of the system, rendering the network bandwidth inefficiently used. Recent developments in wireless technologies have led to establishing full-duplex communications as a coping mechanism to the ever growing mobile industry. A full-duplex Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (FD-OFDMA) system allows allocating the same resource block to two different UEs: one on the uplink, and one on the downlink. The two UEs form a pair associated with the allocated resource block, on which the base station transmits and receives simultaneously. In theory, this leads to doubling the capacity. In practice, full-duplex mode introduces new types of interferences that threaten to diminish its gains. Our goal is to develop and simulate algorithms for scheduling in full-duplex networks. To this end, we propose multiple scheduling algorithms, including a full-duplex Max-SINR algorithm, a hybrid Max-SINR algorithm and a full-duplex Proportional Fair algorithm, among others.

Nowadays, cyber criminals in the Middle East have evolved into professional teams and military adversaries. There is a corporate and political war game going on, and these groups are targeting most critical infrastructure companies. The conflict in MEA revolves around Iran's motives for pursuing a nuclear program and in the other hand it orbits on two natural gas pipelines and the dependence of fossil fuels. Among the several malware that have emerged in the Middle East, we analyzed the behavior of the most noticeable, active and vigilant state-sponsored ones. Our work is the result of a prolonged survey of a large number of technical reports as it goes through available reports focusing on the similarities between the malware and, in the other hand, a proof of concept of the operating vectors utilized by these malware. The main purpose is to highlight the phylogenetic aspects infused in cyberattacks.

Communication Technology is the activity of designing, constructing and maintaining communication systems, which become nowadays more developed in this world, especially the case of emerging services such as home automation appliances, green communication and vehicles communication. In case of absence of communication technologies on a cross section, mirror or traditional traffic light may be used to inform vehicles on bystreet to avoid accidents, however, the wrong position of the equipment, the fog or the power consumption may all lead to their inefficiency. Our aim in this project is to design a simple and low cost intelligent traffic light that will play the role of a base station that can detect the existence of two cars and react by notifying the driver to stop and hence to avoid an expected collision. This system can help in saving lives and reducing the percentage of accidents on different cross sections.

The main purpose of this paper is to design a Compact Ultra-Wideband unidirectional antenna providing directivity not less than 5 dB in average and operates at all frequency bands within the wireless spectrum starting from LTE (700 MHZ) up to WiMax (6 GHZ).The size of antenna should not exceeding 15cm15cm1 cm and having a return loss (RL) less than -10 dB all over the large band. By adjusting properly the size and shape of the reflector used in this antenna, in addition to adding slots at specific positions across the antenna, the performance is enhanced in terms of bandwidth, directivity and gain. Results are based on CST simulations and practical measurements.

there are limitations in binary data transmission at the physical layer in cable connections between hosts (Computers, Hubs, Switches and Routers), such as bandwidth, delay and size of data. In this paper, we create physical circuits to convert from binary to ternary and then from ternary to Binary. After using these conversions, the data is encrypted in the transmission line and the number of wires will reduce from 8 wires to 6 wires so 25% of wires can be reduced.

Several reasons have led to investigate in Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) technology in the last decade, e.g. high quality factor, electromagnetic shielding, and wide bandwidth while having the possibility of integration with other integrated circuits. These advantages are missed in the microstrip technology. The main disadvantage of this new transmission line is the larger foot print comparing to the microstrip technology. Different research works have focused on SIW miniaturization [1-4]; Recently, in [5] we have shown that combining the Slow-Wave (SW) with Half-Mode (HM) techniques will reduce conventional SIW dimensions with a remarkable factor (by 70%) in comparison with original SIW, thus a higher miniaturization factor will be achieved. Therefore, in this paper, the principle of the HMSWSIW is described, and its propagation characteristics are simulated and measured. The measured results at microwave and millimeter wave bands show that we still have good characteristics while miniaturizing. Thus, we can further compress the size of a microwave or millimeter wave integrated circuit based on this new guided wave structure.

Non-dairy milks: Testing the consumption and eating patterns of students- A survey study at the University of Balamand Joanne Karam1, Mireille Serhan2 1Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palam de Mallorca, Spain. 2University of Balamand, Faculty of Health Sciences, Nutritional Sciences Program, Deir El Balamand, P.O. Box 100, Tripoli, Lebanon. mireille.serhan@balamand.edu.lb A questionnaire-based survey was administered to 155 Lebanese young adults, in order to evaluate consumer attitude and acceptance of non-dairy milks, and to gain further information on consumer perception for the manufacturing of a non-dairy product. Female and male students recruited from different faculties at the University of Balamand in Northern Lebanon, greater than 18 y of age, were qualified to participate in the survey. Participants were asked to indicate when was the first time they started to consume non-dairy milks and who first encouraged them. They were also asked how often they consumed these products and for which reason (health benefits, personal preference, new trend). Participants were asked to rate their knowledge of health benefits associated with such products, compared to that of cow milk. They were then asked to indicate if they encourage the manufacturing of an innovative non-dairy product. The results of the study showed that only 35% of the respondents have consumed plant based milk, for they lack the curiosity to try new products or haven't heard about them. Those who consume plant based milk, were asked first about the major differences observed between dairy milk versus plant based milk. 80% of the respondents have answered flavor and smell, whereas 13% of the respondents have answered texture and color. Regarding the type of plant based milk consumed; soy milk shows the highest score (61%), almond milk the second (19%), followed by coconut milk (17%) and rice milk (3%). 87% of the respondents who consume plant based milk did not have easy access to it. Health benefits were the main reason behind consumption of plant based milks (60%), flavor (14%), new trend (12%). As for the knowledge of the respondents on the composition of the plant based milk, 60% of the respondents were aware of its low fat content, whereas 32% of the respondents were familiar with its richness in vitamins and 8% have consumed it for its easier digestibility. 95% of the respondents had no barrier from consuming dairy milk. The remaining respondents could not consume it due to cow's milk allergy (35%), vegan diet (15%) and others suffer from bloating or cannot tolerate it (50%). 61% of the respondents were supportive to the manufacturing of a non-dairy product, expecting that the new product will be unique in character and is readily available. These results substantiate the need for educational initiatives or activities tailored to expand the knowledge of young Lebanese students regarding the health benefits of non-dairy products. At present, it should be helpful to work on new projects to develop local non-dairy products that can be considered satisfactory by consumers and of possible interest to the general community. Keywords Non-dairy Milks; Consumer Perception and Knowledge; Students; University of Balamand.

In seedless table grapes, the excessive natural fruit set leads to compact bunches, small berries with poor color and low uniformity of maturation. This experiment aimed to study the effect of plant growth regulators (PGRs) on "Superior Seedless / Sugraone" table grapes variety to decrease bunch compactness and improve berry size and thus attain a profitable production. It was conducted during the growing vine season 2016 in Ablah situated in the central Bekaa region. The PGRs used are: Gibberellic Acid (GA3) and Synthetic Cytokinin (S.C). They were applied by spraying of the whole canopy at 120% bloom for the thinning treatment and by bunch dipping for the sizing treatment at later development stages and different timing. The experimental plan is a Completely Randomized Bloc Design (CRBD) divided into 3 blocs; each bloc contains 7 treatments (including the control treatment), therefore, each treatment is repeated 3 times. Each repetition is applied on 6 vines resulting in 18 vines per treatment with a total 126 vines in the experiment. The seven treatments are: T1: thinning exclusively with a 1.5 ppm GA3 concentration (T1), T2: (T1) and sizing with 20 ppm GA3 at 4-7 mm berry diameter, T3: (T1) and sizing with 40 ppm GA3 at 4-7 mm berry diameter, T4: (T1) and sizing with 40 ppm GA3 at 4-7 mm berry diameter + 20 ppm GA3 performed 1 week after the first sizing treatment, T5: (T1) and sizing with 20 ppm GA3 at 4-7 mm berry diameter + 40 ppm GA3 performed 1 week after the first sizing treatment + 60 ppm GA3 performed 1 week after the second sizing treatment, T6: (T1) and sizing with 20 ppm GA3 + 2 ppm S.C performed at 4-7 mm berry diameter, T7: control that didn't include any kind of PGRs treatments. The experiment measured the effect of different treatments on the yield and evolution of fruit quality (berry color, berry weight, berry diameter, berry Brix, grape length and grape compactness) during the growth cycle and at harvest date. Results showed that all treatments delayed grape maturity (Brix index) by an average of 1 week compared to the control with a maximum delay shown in the T6 treatment. The applied treatments had a positive effect on berry weight and berry diameter, thus on the total yield. T5 showed the highest significant effect on berry weight (F=11.361 and p<0.0001) and on berry diameter (F=15.461 and p<0.001), increasing the yield by 40% compared to the control.

Pruning is one of the main practices in viticulture that affects the production, more specifically the yield that is inversely proportional to the quality of grapes produced. Moreover, pruning is a canopy management practice that can affect the photosynthetic capacity of vines, in other words, the fruit content and thus its quality. In Lebanon, where the vine cultivation is gaining an economic importance, the agricultural techniques are rather traditional as taught during the French mandate. This research project aims to modernize and identify the pruning technique adapted to the local conditions and this by comparing different bud load and study their effect on the grapes yield and quality and wine production. The research was applied to vines of the Cv Syrah, goblet shaped and was conducted in a vineyard situated in Ammik West Bekaa Region (located 33o42'N, 35o45'E). This trial applied different bud loads varying from 3 to 8 buds per cane and compared them to conventional pruning, using 4 buds per cane. The experimental design is a Latin Square shape made of 6 treatment repeated 6 times each, resulting into a total of 36 reps. The results showed that the treatment including 7 buds /cane had the latest bud break and thus longest development cycle which can be a solution for spring frost problems. Moreover, the highest yield was obtained in the treatments including 8 and 7 buds per cane with an average of 11.5 t/ha and 10.5 t/ha respectively followed by the treatment with 6 buds with 10.1 t/ha showing a highly significant difference when compared to the Control equal to 8.4 t/ha (F=12.138, p<0.001). The best technological and oenological quality was elaborated from the treatments including 5 to 6 buds/cane showing an average of 14 % and 14.5 % respectively for the total probable alcohol (TAP) and 4 and 4.25 respectively for total acidity compared to the control with 15% TAP (F=27.43, p<0.001) and 3.75 total acidity (F=46.11, p<0.001).

Le caroubier fait partie du paysage libanais et a été historiquement associé au mode de vie des communautés rurales. Malgré son utilisation polyvalente, la culture du caroubier au Liban a été gravement négligée au cours du siècle dernier. A ce jour, les ressources génétiques du caroubier ont été rarement étudiées et n'ont pas été suffisamment évaluées. Pour cela, cette étude vise à évaluer l'état actuel des anciens caroubiers au Liban dans une perspective d'évaluation et de conservation. Notre enquête a révélé l'existence de nombreux caroubiers centenaires répartis dans différentes régions agro-climatiques à travers le pays, de 0 à 800 m d'altitude. Ces arbres ont été trouvés dans les forêts, les bords des routes, ou en état dispersé dans les vergers. Plusieurs facteurs menacent la durabilité de ces centenaires. De nombreuses charpentières ont été retrouvées coupées et détruites. Par ailleurs, aucune information fiable n'est disponible concernant l'âge de ces centenaires et aucune initiative n'a été entreprise pour leur conservation. En ce qui concerne les traits quantitatifs de ces arbres, une grande variabilité a été enregistrée pour les dimensions du pied, du tronc et de la cavité centrale. L'analyse en composantes principales a permis de différencier les arbres les plus remarquables qui se trouvent dans le sud d'Iklim El Karroub, avec plus de 7 m de circonférence de pied. Ces caroubiers centenaires devront être caractérisées pour les caractères de la feuille et du fruit afin de comprendre leur performance dans le temps et de les valoriser dans les programmes de sélection.

In many developing countries agriculture sector plays an important role in the economy. The need for cheap, fast, and accurate tools with temporal and global coverage has encouraged the decision makers to use remote sensing. Field spectroradiometer data collection can improve substantially crop mapping by reducing similarities between different crop types which has similar ecological conditions and by increasing the same crop recognition even with the variation in the crop chemistry and structure. This paper presents a new interactive spectral signatures database based interactive tool (CSSIT) for the major crops in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin. The tool combine several features such as the collection of spectral signatures of crops during the growth stage, the calculation of several physical and chemical parameters for some crops, resampling of the spectral signature for a specific multispectral or hyperspectral satellites, and many user interactive features such as displaying the spectral signature of a specific crop at specific period of time.

The salinity of groundwater is one of the most common global problems in coastal areas. One of the causes of salinity of groundwater is seawater intrusion which was aggravated in recent decades on the coastal area and in southern Lebanon. Irrigation by salty water will lead to salt accumulation, and hence it leads to soil salinity. The objective of this work was to study the performance of the two genotypes of millet obtained from the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA, Dubai) irrigated with four increasing levels of salinity (1.95, 4, 8 and 12 dS m-1). These levels of salinity were obtained after mixing the seawater with the water from the local well having an electrical conductivity equal to 1.95 dS m-1. A completely randomized experimental design was conducted at the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI), located in southern Lebanon during the 2016 growing season. The crop received a total of 297 mm of irrigation water, of which 168 mm was a differential irrigation with saline water. The genotype HHVNCTALL exhibited the highest value of the plant height and dry biomass production, especially at 4 dS m-1. In the soil level the exchangeable sodium proportion increased at the end of the trial throughout the active soil depth, notably in the upper soil 0-20 cm, from 3.7% to 20%.

Testing potato tolerance to drought by managing potassium (K) level in the soil in semi-arid Bekaa area of Lebanon was tested in 2015 and 2016. The use of drip irrigation system can improve potato response to water stress, enhance crop transpiration and result in better use of water by the crop. Smaller water consumption, lower canopy temperature and higher chlorophyll content highlighted the role of K for better use of applied fertilizer and water. The appropriate dose of K lowered the canopy temperature which became cooler as the potassium level increased that reflects better adaptation of the crop to dry conditions. Another indicator of the performance of the crop under drought conditions was the chlorophyll content, which increased significantly in the leaves with 300 kg K/ha leading to higher production of fresh tubers with a larger grade of commercial tubers. The application of increasing doses of K fertilizers (100-200 and 300 kg K ha-1) under deficit irrigation, positively affected crop parameters in 2015, with significantly higher (33 Mg ha-1) and heavier commercial tuber. In addition, the average water consumption decreased significantly with the increase of potassium rates. In 2016 the applied irrigation water (373 mm) was higher than in 2015 (309 mm) yet both were much less than the average water applied according to local practices. This could be linked to the absence of significant differences in terms of water consumption, fresh yield. However, a pattern similar to that observed in 2015 was found then. The comparison of the agronomic water yields achieved during these two trials showed that 50-75% of plots yielded above the FAO range (10-12 kg m-3) with a significant economy of water.

New wastewater Treatment Technology: Novel synthesis of nanofiltration hollow fiber membranes for toxic metal removal from Municipal Wastewater

Ramia Z. ALBAKAIN and Mohammed Hussein KAILANI

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, The University of Jordan, P.O. Box 11942, Amman, Jordan

E.mails: Dr. Ramia ALBAKAIN ramia.bakain@yahoo.com, r.bakain@ju.edu.jo Dr. Mohammed Hussein KAILANI kailani@ju.edu.jo

Abstract The lack of water has severe impacts on domestic needs, food production, and industrial productivity. Increasing anthropogenic activity has many effects on human health due to the emissions of toxic compounds. Road transport and industrial production significantly affected the environment. The emission of harmful substances as toxic heavy metals (Pb, Cd and Ni) and pharmaceutical residues results in serious threats to human health. Platinum group elements PGEs (Pt, Pd, Rh, Ru, and Ir), are also considered as wastes from the hospitals. Hospitals are significant source of environmental pollution with PGEs since anticancer drugs used in chemotherapy departments and departments of dental filling contain PGEs platinum group compounds. PGEs compounds have been used to treat numerous types of tumors (testicular, ovarian, bladder, and many other kinds of tumors). These compounds are released directly to municipal wastewater systems since effluents of hospitals have no special treatment, then, they can accumulate in the tissues of living organisms and thus can constitute a serious risk for them. A lack of appropriate treatment methods for the purification of such active compounds contributes to environmental contamination of toxic heavy metals. Chemical precipitation, coagulation-flocculation, ion-exchange, adsorption, evaporation, biosorption and membrane filtration are methods to remove common heavy metals from water. Unfortunately, these methods are costly, and some needs specific resins to remove certain heavy metals and finally, the separation of heavy metals from biosorbents is complicated. Nowadays, nanofiltration membrane (NF) technology has gained attention in toxic heavy metal removal from wastewater, since it has many advantages: high removal efficiency, low cost, high energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. The aim of this study is to synthesize a new polymer using cheap compounds, simple methods, and available instruments, and then, to prepare cross-linked hollow fiber membranes from this polymer for toxic heavy metals removal from wastewater. In this study, for the first time, a new and cheap synthesized hollow fiber membrane was generated by mixing at first these compounds: benzophenone, diphthalic anhydride, dianline, oxydianiline, nitrobenzene and benzoic acid using a simple shaker to prepare the polymer. Then, the polymer solution was washed with isopropanol/water, and then dried. After that, certain amount of the new polymer was dissolved in LiNO3 and NMP for doping process. A simple instrument consists of 2 pumps was designed with different spinnerets diameters to fabricate the hollow fiber membranes. The cross linked hollow fiber membranes can be performed by Polyethylenimine (PEI). The formation of the cross linking can be confirmed using FTIR spectrometer and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Where, the morphology of the hollow fiber membranes was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The test of salt rejection of PEI cross-linked hollow fiber membranes to the heavy metal can be carried out using a solution of metal salt such as Pb(NO3)2. The results showed high efficient rejection of the hollow fiber membranes to heavy metals that exist in wastewater, this approved the new era of cheap, safe and simple methods for wastewater treatment.

(SEM for the hollow fiber)(image)

SUMMARY A powerful analytical method was developed for the simultaneous determination of traces of 63 pharmaceuticals and their metabolites representing different therapeutic classes: antibiotics, stimulant, antidepressant, mucolytic, antiparasite and dyes using SPE-LC-ESI-MS/MS in water samples. 100 samples from rivers, lakes, fountain and artesian wells were collected for this study overall Lebanon. Monitoring programs show the presence of many antibiotics in several analyzed samples. Therefore, to evaluate if a relation may exist between finding antibiotics in water samples and resistant-bacterial strains; three bacteria (Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) were selected for isolation, then antimicrobial susceptibility was determined using disk diffusion method according to the recommendations of the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing. INTRODUCTION In the last 15 years, pharmaceuticals used in both human and veterinary medicine, and their metabolites were classified as "emerging contaminants" due to their incomplete degradation at the wastewater treatment plants. They are released into environment through many pathways such as metabolic excretion and improper disposal techniques [1], therefore these analytes have been detected at residual concentrations (ng/L) in different environmental compartments [2], [3]. However, antibiotics were classified among the most commonly used drugs, and their occurrence in nature at trace levels constitutes a major threat to public health due to promoting bacteria-resistant strains [2]. MATERIALS AND METHODS 100 samples were collected from rivers, lakes, and fountains and artesian wells overall Lebanon and passed through a 0.7 µm filter. A volume of 200 mL from water samples was loaded onto Oasis HLB cartridge which had been previously conditioned with 5 mL of acetonitrile, 5 mL of water adjusted at pH 4 with formic acid and 8.3 mL of EDTA 250 mM. Cartridge was vacuum-dried for 1 hour before elution. Elution was done with 5 mL of acetonitrile/methanol mixture (v/v: 60/40), and then the eluate was evaporated to near dryness under a gentle steam of nitrogen at 50°C. Reconstitution of the analyte was performed in 300 µL inserts using acetonitrile. Finally, vial was stored in -20°C at dark until analysis. The identification of these pharmaceuticals in each sample was accomplished by using Agilent 1200 high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system coupled to an Agilent 6410 electrospray triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer (ESI-MS/MS). Bacteria strains were isolated using selective media after membrane filtration technique. Then, a disk diffusion method was adopted to determine antimicrobial susceptibility. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Two types of cartridges were tested: Oasis HLB and MCX. Best retention for most pharmaceuticals was obtained using Oasis HLB after samples adjustment at pH 4 comparing to pH 3 and 5. Acetonitrile/methanol (60/40) mixture was adopted finally as the solvent of choice for the elution step due to its high recovery comparing to other solvents (Acetonitrile/Water, Acetonitrile, and methanol). In addition, separation method (mobile phase, buffer, and gradient mode) and MS-MS parameters (precursor ion, product ions, collision energy, and fragmentor) were also optimized to obtain accurate results. Method recovery was in acceptable range (75%-125%) with RSD value less than 15%. Also, linearity was studied in the range of 5-100 ng/mL and the correlation coefficient was between 0.98 and 0.99 for almost of compounds. Many pharmaceuticals were detected in several samples: caffeine, rifaximin, sulfadiazine, sulfamethazine, sulfathiazole, sulfaguanidine, sulfamethoxazole, erythromycin and their metabolites erythromycin A enol ether, and anhydroerythromycin, flumequine, norfloxacine, ciprofloxacine and trimethoprime. Enterococcus faecalis shows the highest prevalence in all water sampling sites: 86% in river, 52% in well, 50% in lake, while 35% in fountain. Likewise, 43% of river, 22% of fountain, and 18% of well samples were contaminated by Escherichia coli. These findings indicated that there was a source of fecal contamination in most water sources. However, Enterococcus faecalis were more prevalent than Escherichia coli as fecal bacteria. This could be due to the fact that E. faecalis usually are able to survive longer in water than E. coli, which is more sensitive to environmental factors such as: light, salinity, temperature, and pH. Conclusions The developed multi-residue method, based on SPE following LC-MS/MS analysis, was successfully applied to analyze 63 pharmaceuticals in various types of water samples. The perspective of this work is using the developed protocol for chemical analyses in parallel to microbiological studies in order to monitor the impact of antibiotic contamination on bacterial antibiotic-resistance phenomenon. References [1] R. Guedes-Alonso, C. Afonso-Olivares, S. Montesdeoca-Esponda, Z. Sosa-Ferrera, et J. Santana-Rodriguez, « An assessment of the concentrations of pharmaceutical compounds in wastewater treatment plants on the island of Gran Canaria (Spain) », Springerplus, vol. 2, no 1, p. 24, 2013. [2] N. Dorival-Garcîa, A. Zafra-Gômez, S. Cantarero, A. Navalon, et J. L. Vilchez, « Simultaneous determination of 13 quinolone antibiotic derivatives in wastewater samples using solid-phase extraction and ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry », Microchem. J., vol. 106, p. 323-333, 2013. [3] M. S. Díaz-Cruz et D. Barceló, « Determination of antimicrobial residues and metabolites in the aquatic environment by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry », Anal. Bioanal. Chem., vol. 386, no 4, p. 973-985, 2006. [4] R. Sidrach-cardona, M. Hijosa-valsero, E. Marti, J. Luis, et E. Becares, « Prevalence of antibiotic-resistant fecal bacteria in a river», Sci. Total Environ., vol. 488‑489, 220‑227, 2014.

Aerosol particles have important direct and indirect impacts on the climate. Within the planetary Boundary layer (BL), these particles have a relatively short lifetime due to a large number of removal processes, e.g., rain, sedimentation, coagulation. Once aerosols are transported into the free troposphere (FT), their atmospheric lifetime increases significantly making them representative of large spatial areas. The physical and chemical properties of the FT aerosols are poorly characterized due to difficulties in performing high altitude measurements. In this work we use a one year data set of continuous measurements performed at the PUY (Puy de Dôme, 45°46' N, 2°57'E, 1465 m asl) global GAW station. A methodology based on a combination of four methods (WCT, ECMWF, RADON-222, and NOx/CO), is applied to the PUY to identify when the site was in the FT or in the BL. This methodology allows us to study the differences in particle physical characteristics between the FT and the BL. In addition to aerosol size distribution measurements, we analyzed black carbon (BC) measurements and a range of different meteorological parameters. We observe that air masses sampled as BL have frequencies ranging from 50% in winter to 97% in summer. While concentrations of BC, Aitken and accumulation mode particles were higher in the BL than in the FT in winter and autumn, they were measured to be higher in the FT compared to BL in spring (Fig. 1(a, c and d)), indicating an eventual direct contamination of the FT by strong convective biomass burning events during this season. No significant difference between the BL and the FT concentrations was observed for the nucleation mode particles for all seasons, suggesting a continuous additional source of nucleation mode particles in the FT compared to the other aerosol size classes. Finally, coarse mode particles concentrations were found higher in the FT than in the BL during summer, and similar in the two atmospheric layers for the other seasons (Fig. 1(b)). Airmass backtrajectories have been calculated for 96h for the period of March to December 2015 with the LACYTRAJ model in order to document the time spent of the sampled airmass in the FT since last contact with the BL.

In the context of CANA Plus project and in order to assess the spatio-temporal variation of water and sediment characteristics in the watershed of Ibrahim River and its coastal marine zone, water's physico-chemical parameters were analyzed and interpreted as well as sediment's grain size composition, geochemical, biochemical and biological parameters. Five sampling campaigns were executed along the coastal zone using the scientific vessel CANA-CNRS in April, June, July, September 2016 and January 2017, and three others campaigns for river's water analysis in May, July, and November 2016. Water samples were collected from the river and the sea moreover sediment samples were collected from the marine coastal area at depths varying from 10 to 60 m. The concentrations of nutrients in the river water were found to be lower than those in the sea water. The grain size composition of the sediment was mainly composed of fine sand at the shallower points and fine fraction at the deepest sampling points (60 m). The organic matter in sediment ranged between 32 and 65 mg/g, with the highest values occurring at 60 m. The percentage of total nitrogen fluctuated between 0.004 and 0.067% and the percentage of calcium carbonate fluctuated between 20 and 30%. This situation may be attributed to the decomposition, sinking and deposition of shells and some aquatic organism such as Coccolithophores, foraminifers, gastropods and bivalves on seabed verified by stereoscopic observation of the sediment. Calcium carbonate may also have terrestrial origin related to the carbonated adjacent land and may be exported to the coastal area with the river inputs. Low values of chlorophyll-a (less than 0.4 μg/g) and phaeopigments (between 0.8 and 3 μg/g) were detected at most sampling points which could be related to the oligotrophy feature of the Levantine basin. The concentrations of total phosphate ranged between 97 and 148 μg/g with the dominance of inorganic fraction in most sampling stations. Few macrofaunal groups were identified such as gastropods, crustaceans and polychaetes generally found in sandy bottoms governed by high hydrodynamic conditions. The low abundance of these biological taxa is related to the unstable environmental conditions, coupled with a low availability of food resources preventing the establishment of stable benthic communities. This preliminary study shows that the coastal marine area as well as the watershed of Ibrahim River seems to be less subjected to sources of contamination when comparing the studied parameters to those found in other regions.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are omnipresent environmental pollutants. These compounds find their way in the aquatic environment through atmospheric deposition from natural and anthropogenic activities. Anthropogenic activities include pyrogenic processes, wood-burning stoves, barbecues, incineration, municipal sewage, and vehicle emissions; whereas natural sources cover volcanos and forest fires. PAHs are known by their toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic effect; therefore the monitoring of these compounds in the environment has been of great environmental concern all over the world.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the occurrence, distribution and source of PAHs in surface and groundwater samples collected along the watershed of Abou Ali River - North Lebanon. The sixteen PAHs, listed as priority pollutants by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), were selected for this study.

A field survey was conducted to determine surface and groundwater sampling locations. Consequently, 30 water samples (16 surface water and 14 groundwater samples) were collected from different locations along the watershed. Initially, the extraction of PAHs was performed by solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME); then the analysis was executed by using gas chromatography- ion trap tandem mass spectrometry (GC-ITMS/MS). Moreover, the PAHs molecular diagnostic ratios (DR) such as Ant/ (Ant+Phe) (anthracene (Ant), phenanthrene (Phe)), Flt/ (Flt + Pyr) (fluoranthene (Flt), Pyrene (Pyr)) and BaA/ (BaA + Chr) (benzo[a]anthracene (BaA), chrysene (Chr)) were used to identify the sources of PAHs in water samples. The results obtained for surface water samples showed absence or minor contamination in mountainous sites located in the upper part of the river where the total concentration of PAHs varied between 0 and 0.91 ng mL-1. Furthermore, the concentrations of PAHs in the middle part of the river have reached 27.02 ng mL-1; this is due to intense traffic, barbecues and the presence of many restaurants all over this area. The lower part of the river, located in the region of Tripoli, showed the highest PAHs contamination (41.72 ng mL-1). The increase in PAHs concentration in this highly populated site is caused by traffic as long as urban run-off, municipal sewage and burning of vehicle tires. On the other side, the concentrations of PAHs obtained in groundwater samples were below the EPA guidelines and do not pose any environmental risk. The calculated DR showed that the pyrolytic PAHs contribute to the contamination of water in the studied area. This was also confirmed by the fact that high molecular weight PAHs (HMW PAHs: ≥ 4-rings PAHs) were predominant over low molecular weight PAHs (LMW PAHs: 2 to 3-rings PAHs); thus the LMW/HMW had a value <1.

As a conclusion, the middle and lower part of the river were found to be contaminated, whereas the upper part didn't show any contamination. As a recommendation, attention should be paid to control the anthropogenic activities in the contaminated areas and the presence of PAHs in the sediments should also be investigated.

In agricultural landscapes, it is of utmost importance to maintain forest habitats since the biodiversity they host has been proven to deliver a number of ecosystem services to agriculture. The number of species found within a given area (cf. alpha-diversity) is the result of an environmental filtering of a larger number of species available at a coarser spatial resolution (cf. gamma-diversity). This spatial nestedness constrains the alpha-gamma diversity relationship towards either linear (cf. proportional sampling) or curvilinear (cf. community saturation) patterns. Although the impact of habitat fragmentation on alpha or gamma diversity has been widely studied, its impact on the alpha-gamma relationship at different spatial resolutions remains unknown. Here, we assume that habitat fragmentation shifts the alpha-gamma diversity relationship from a linear, at low fragmentation, to a curvilinear pattern at high fragmentation. For three geographic areas in northern France (W Somme, W Oise, N Aisne), we surveyed plant species richness at five nested spatial resolutions (1m2, 10m2, 100m2, 1000m2, total) within 135 forest patches (15 per habitat type per region) scattered across three types of landscapes: intensively cultivated openfield (small, isolated patches); bocage (small, connected patches); and forest (« fake » patches). We used linear and linear mixed effects models to test, for each of the 10 pairs of nested spatial resolutions, whether habitat type interacts with gamma diversity while controlling for the effect of patch characteristics (size, shape length and age) and habitat quality (soil conditions) on alpha diversity. We found interaction terms only for those pairs of nested spatial resolutions that compare a given plot area to the coarsest resolution (e.g. 1m2-total) with linear patterns for semi- or un-fragmented habitats and curvilinear patterns for highly fragmented habitats. This suggests that forest fragmentation influence the alpha-gamma diversity relationship in support with our hypothesis and thus should be taken into account, in addition to patch characteristics and habitat quality, when predicting local richness from the regional species pool.

With increasing population and food demands in Lebanon, land degradation and mismanagement put food security under risk. Mapping annual cash crops distribution benefits the national efforts to provide updated agricultural statistics. This is relevant in a country where sporadic agricultural census is executed once every 5-8 years and depends on field questionnaire. In this case, the source of information is based mainly on the estimation of farmers. Consequently, supporting decision-making and end-users for the planning of agricultural sector, water allocation, mapping of crop distribution and market conditions will be remarkable for the maintenance of national food security. In Lebanon, the number of household members of farmers, who are living solely or partly from farming (including the farmer himself), reached 817,513, an average of about 5 people per farm, (MoA, 2010). The recent map of soil aptitude to agriculture shows that the agricultural land area with high and medium productivity soils is estimated at 524,500 ha, representing half of the country's cultivable land mass (Darwish, 2012). Remote sensing computation is a useful tool to the monitor crop development and their yields. Some plant growth models require estimates of leaf area and absorbed radiation to simulate evapotranspiration and photosynthesis. The objective of our work is to study the potential of using remote sensing data in order to reach an accurate outcome of crop mapping and yield estimation/forecasting in the Bekaa plain of Lebanon. The principle of net primary productivity (NPP) will be followed depending on light use efficiency (LUE), Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (APAR) following Monteith's model and Land Surface Energy Balance Algorithm (SEBAL) will be used to describe the spatio-temporal variability in land wetness conditions and soil evaporative fraction. In this regard, biome type and land wetness are expected to have impact on crop radiation use efficiency. Different optical satellites imagery products will be used and processed to extract the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Evapotranspiration (ET) to model crop biomass buildup along the vegetation season. A Bowen ratio station shall be installed in a representative field, with a number of pixels corresponding to the resolution of open access satellites, in order to calibrate the remotely sensed data regarding mainly evapotranspiration. The station will continuously provide us with ground data on heat gained and lost (radiation), wind speed, soil moisture and temperature as well as air humidity and temperature. This acquaintance will provide us with additional indications on crop performance, water anomalies or heat stresses. In parallel with satellite overpasses, in-situ measurements will take place to calibrate, validate and interpret the obtained results in conjunction with the history and management of observed fields. Measurements of Leaf Area Index "LAI" (to calibrate LAI estimated from remote sensing), soil moisture, ET (Bowen ratio), canopy height at the end of each stage, chlorophyll leaf content, chemical and physical analysis (soil samples), spectroradiometer and canopy temperature to control the stress conditions (water stress) during the crop cycle. Nevertheless, access to the surrounding meteorological stations is a must for having an adequate input to carry out an accurate output of the expected yield estimation model. As for projected results, we foresee to have an accurate estimation of crop biomass production 3 to 5 weeks prior to harvesting. Information will be used on real time basis to promote the fast response and actions of farmers thus providing the growers with early warning system for better management and handling of the expected, harvested yield. References Country Study on Status of Land Tenure, Planning and Management in Oriental near East Countries. T Darwish - FAO-SNO CAIRO, EGYPT, 2012 RESULTATS GLOBAUX DU MODULE DE BASE DU RECENSEMENT DE L'AGRICULTURE 2010 Ministry of Agriculture - Lebanon

In this study an original contribution to the risk assessment of DGT (Dangerous Goods Transportation) in case of toxic gas dispersion is proposed, in order to improve the safety of people, protect the environment and to compute with accuracy the impacted areas when the risks associated to the DGT are occurring. The GEOFENCING-MD project for control and management of DGT in Urban Areas aims to develop a telematics tool for the supervision and management of DGT in an urban agglomeration, in order to improve its logistical functioning and to limit risks in the supply and transit of hazardous materials on its territory. This tool must be used by all the actors involved in the DGT (shippers, transporters, public authorities, intervention groups, infrastructure operators, etc.). This project includes the collection of embedded sensor data on the transport of dangerous Lorries, for example their geo location and traceability in real time, and the transmission of data to a single server managing the access to the information collected. Thus, the centralization of the data makes it possible to imagine the functioning of this server as a control tower. This control tower defines a technical and functional architecture of a real-time DGT tracking and supervision information system. This work is part of the GEOFENCING-MD project. More specifically, it consists of tracking online and in real time the different means of transport, mainly trucks, transporting hazardous materials which will therefore be geolocated using a GPS. In the case of an accident occurring on one of the trucks, the purpose is to evaluate, by means of a map, the hazard and safety zones where the level of risk is deemed acceptable, or inacceptable, around the affected truck, in order to set up safety barriers (fence) and to reduce the probability of occurrence of another accident Thus, during this work, a contribution in the realization of a monitoring and a supervision demonstrator of DGT has been developed, mainly with regard to the assessment of the level of risk through the production of mappings that evaluate hazardous and safety zones. The developed tool provides a web service that allows the user to determine the hazardous areas with the intensity levels of hazardous phenomena for DGT. It provides the diameter or areas in the form of list of boxes of intensity zone SEI (irreversible effects) and SEL (lethal effects), the SELS (significant lethal effects) area being less used. It is used to describe the distribution of the population in the form of densities or zones with given issue areas.

Security has become an essential domain in our daily life; from protecting mobile chats to bank accounts to confidential data. On the other hand, computers are advancing so fast that some cryptosystems may vanish in the upcoming years. For this, a need of robust security systems is raised to ensure that our data will be kept safe. This paper introduces a new approach in cryptography based on the distribution of data using an x-y key function. Many algorithms are applied to serve the goal and promising results have appeared. Security has been maximized although there are some time and space limits for large-scale, so far.

Cryptography, defined as the science of securing data against any attack, includes data encryption and decryption using a key. While encryption transforms a plaintext into an incomprehensible cipher text, decryption reverses the process. Almost all life fields use secure systems to store and transfer data: banking, military, wireless sensor network, communication and embedded systems… Along history, many algorithms have been used; Caesar cipher is known as the first cryptography algorithm, it consists on shifting the letters of a message by 3 using alphabetical order to obtain an encrypted message. Also, many machines were used to decipher telegrams during the wars like the German Enigma and the Japanese Purple. Nowadays, we use a wide range of other methods like DES, RSA, and AES, which is the most secure, and all of them are implemented using normal or advanced computers. The cryptographic algorithms weren't explicitly available in the early days, but scientists have stated that the algorithm should be public and data must be secured using a key. We know two types of key encryption: symmetric and asymmetric. The symmetric one consists of a private key exchanged between communication extremities while the asymmetric is based on two keys, one is public and the other is private. A digital signature is also generated using private key to be sure of the sender identity. One of the most important concepts in cryptosystems is generating huge number of combinations .The speed of decryption is relative to the speed of computers; more the speed, less the security. So we should increase the number of possibilities if we want a secure algorithm. In other words, cryptography is math in a part and computer technology in the other. Time, space and security are the criteria that distinguish a good algorithm from a bad one. In addition, the application where the algorithm is used is an essential part in deciding what range of each criteria to use. For example, we really need speed in chat applications, security in banking operations, and space in embedded systems. So, the algorithm should be either flexible for all applications, or specific for each one. In what follows we will present a new cryptographic system based on x-y function and we will employ many algorithms to test its validity.

Le besoin d'apprendre (classer) semble être un caractère inhérent à l'espèce humaine. C'est une activité importante du cerveau. Pour les êtres vivants, apprendre à reconnaître son environnement est une question de survie. Malgré tout, la classification humaine reste subjective et évolue selon nos connaissances. Elle nécessite nos organes sensoriels pour recevoir les informations de l'environnement et notre cerveau pour les analyser et décider. Selon une étude récente, les algorithmes d'apprentissage (machine learning) devraient remplacer 25% des emplois dans le monde, au cours des 10 prochaines années. Les applications seront hautement automatisées, auto-modifiables et s'améliorent au cours du temps avec une intervention humaine minimale à mesure qu'elles apprennent avec plus de données. Les motivations de l'apprentissage automatique sont de trois ordres: (i) la présence de capteurs abondants, performants et à bas prix, (ii) les ordinateurs sont de grandes capacités de traitement et de stockage, (iii) la haute interconnexion par internet, réseaux, etc. Ceci a conduit à la disponibilité de quantité gigantesque de données. Nous sommes noyés dans l'information. La question est comment faire pour extraire de cette masse de données des informations utiles, pertinentes et interprétables ? Après un exposé technique, sur la classification et la sélection d'attributs par graphes, je présenterai des applications dans les domaines suivants: - Culturel: analyse de la texture d'images pour la classification d'échantillons de dentelle et de tableaux de peintures - Environnemental: surveillance de l'écosystème marin par observation du phytoplancton - Biomédical: aide au diagnostic du cancer de la prostate par imagerie par résonance magnétique multi-paramétrique

Today, software bugs are causing significant losses in the industry. Software "Testing shows the presence, not the absence of bugs" (E. Dijkstra). Proof assistants such as Coq provide a means of proving a software's correctness with regards to its specification. Although Coq is one of the world's leading proof assistants, it is still fairly limited in terms of the languages it supports during program extraction. We are, therefore, currently developing the Scala-of-Coq compiler that enables the Coq proof assistant to support program extraction in Scala, a programming language widely used in industry thanks to its fusion of functional and object-oriented programming.

Enhancing education system could be done not only by targeting the process of education itself, but also by providing the most possible comfort for student and parents to increase their interest in school. The idea of this project is to target this issue, in which a tracking system for the school bus was designed and developed using a software application (android and web). This system provides a mean for the parents to track their kids while they are in the bus and notifies them before the arrival of the bus to their houses location. The system is totally managed by the school which puts less cost and more information security. It allows the school to know about the absence of a student and hence the driver of the bus can avoid passing by his place if this will help him to avoid road congestion.

The Framework of ICT Governance and Business Model Innovation Mutual Impact: An Introductory Study

Jocelyne Jreij1, Antoine Melki1 Department of Computer Science, University of Balamand Joceline.jreije@fty.balamand.edu.lb Antoine.melki@balamand.edu.lb

ICT Governance Information and communication technology (ICT) governance has become an integral part of any business solution. The role of ICT has evolved over the past decades from a supporting, back-office function to a key function, enabler and driving force for organizations. ICT has become a dynamic and strategic asset of an organization for the successful achievement of its mission and goals. ICT governance is not a one-time exercise or something achieved by a mandate or setting of rules. It is an ongoing activity that requires a continuous improvement mentality and responsiveness to the fast changing IT environment. There is no single ICT governance model that suits all organizations. Yet there are agreed upon common elements that form the basic structure of an ICT governance framework. ICT governance mainly addresses three critical questions: What decisions must be made to ensure appropriate management and use of ICT? Who should make these decisions? How will these decisions be implemented and monitored? While investing in technology over time, a business tends to accumulate a host of applications and digitized business processes, along with added infrastructure and data. This accumulation eventually becomes the organization's digitized platform. Yet only "mature" digitized platform correlate with firm's competitiveness. "It is not enough to just invest. Companies need to strengthen their key enablers… The most important of these is to prioritize achieving and sustaining a mature digitized platform". BM and BMI In recent years, the term business model (BM) has been used in the literature in various contexts and with different meanings. On the other hand, over the last 15 years, business model innovation (BMI) has gained an increasing amount of attention in studies related to governance and among researchers for business practices. The notion of BM is several decades old. Definitions differ across studies but the majority of reviews also point to definitional convergence so that many contributions to the literature now offer a notion of BM as the "design or architecture of the value creation, delivery, and capture mechanism" of a firm, and of BMI as "designed, novel, and nontrivial changes to the key elements of a firm's BM and/or the architecture linking these elements.". No matter the definition, a firm's BM serves two interlinked purposes: to provide some stability for the development of the company's activities and, at the same time, to be flexible enough to allow for change. But not all changes lead to a change in the business model. Only changes that affect the core standard repeated processes of a business model constitute a change in the BM. Moreover, the successful timing of business model innovation depends on the economic environment, the specific market and industry conditions, and a set of internal factors that includes the degree of product and service innovation, and available financial resources. ICT Governance Impact BMI By reviewing the existing literature, this paper investigates how ICT governance impacts BMI. First two selected lists of definitions for BM and BMI chronologically sorted are drawn. Second, the ICT governance basic structures and framework are described. In addition, the present status of ICT governance is identified along with the challenges it faces. Third, literature is revisited in order to respond to this paper concern: since "ICT governance is the dynamic and strategic asset of an organization" and since the purpose of the BM is "to provide some stability for the development of a company's activities and at the same time to be flexible enough to allow for changes", how do organization maintain the critical link between the dynamicity of technology and the anticipated stability of the business model in order to come up with a possible strategic framework that allows for innovative changes in their business model? Conclusion/Future Work: • The literature indicates a strong link between ICT driven innovation within three main BM building blocks: value propositions on the one hand and customer segments as well as customer relationship on the other. • The BM relationship with technology is formulated in two way manner. First, business models mediate the link between technology and firm performance and, second, developing the right technology is a matter of business model decision regarding openness and user engagement. • The choice of BM influences the way in which technology is monetized and the profitability for the relevant firms. Also, the BM frames that ICT governors hold in their heads determine the way in which technology gets developed and that these connections are capable of being very powerful. • There is a lack of case studies in the existing literature; illustrating how ICT governance affects BMI. The literature points to different ways in which IT helps drive BMI, but few papers exemplify through case studies how to accomplish this. Future work will concentrate on the identification of the framework of interaction between ICT and BM and its effect on performance and ICT governance.

References [1] Baden-Fuller, C. & Haefliger, S. (2013). Business Models and Technological Innovation. Long Range Planning 46 (6): 419-426. Retrieved from: http://www.cassknowledge.com/research/article/business-models-and-technological-innovation-how-they-interact [2] Cavalcante, P., Kesting P. & Ulhøi, J. (2011). Business model dynamics and innovation: (re)establishing the missing linkages. Management Decision, 49(8), 1327-1342. doi:10.1108/00251741111163142 [3] Evgeniou, T. , Fonstad, N. , Merdikawati, N. & Rodriguez-Montemayor, E. (2013). Building competitiveness and Business Performance with ICT. (A white paper produced by INSEAD eLab in collaboration with AT&T). Retrieved from https://centres.insead.edu/elab/research/digitization/documents/20130131att-insead-productivity-report.pdf [4] Foss, N., & Saebi T. (2017). Fifteen Years of research on business Model Innovation: How Far We Come, and Where Should We Go? Journal of Management, 43 (1), 200-227. doi:10.1177/0149206316675927 [5] Giesen, E., Riddleberger, E., Christner, R. & Bell, R. (2010). When and how to innovate your business model. Strategy and Leadership 38(4):17-26 • doi:10.1108/10878571011059700 [6] Müller, S. & Fjeld, E. (2015). The Effect of Information Technology on business Model Innovation. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems. ISSN, 0905-0167. Retrievd from http://pure.au.dk/portal-asb-student/files/79314222/The_Effects_of_Information_Technology_on_Business_Model_Innovation_HICSS.pdf" [7] National Computing Center. (2005). IT GOVERNANCE: Developing a Successful Governance Strategy: A Best Practice Guide for Decision Makers in IT. NCC Best Practice Series. United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons. [8] Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y. and Tucci, C.L. (2005), Clarifying business models: rigins, present and future of the concept, Communications of AIS,2005(16), 1-25. Retrieved from http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3016&context=cais [9] Teece, D. (2010). Business models, business strategy and innovation. Long Range Planning 43:172-194. Retrieved from http://www.businessmodelcommunity.com/fs/root/8jig8-businessmodelsbusinessstrategy.pdf [10] United Nations Joint Inspection Unit. (2011). INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECGNOLOGY (ICT) GOVERNANCE IN THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM ORGANIZATIONS. (JIU/REP/2011/9). (jiu/rep/2011/9). Geneva 2011: Zhang, Y., & Chulkov, N. Retrieved from https://www.unjiu.org/en/reports-notes/JIU%20Products/JIU_REP_2011_9_English.pdf [11] Zott, C., Amit, R. & Massa, L. (2010). THE BUSINESS MODEL: THEORETICAL ROOTS, RECENT DEVELOPMENTS, AND FUTURE RESEARCH. (Working paper 2010-862). Madrid, Spain: University of Navarra, IESE Business School.

Les réseaux d'agglomération sont très à la mode. En une vingtaine d'années seulement, ils ont réussi à s'imposer dans la totalité des politiques de développement des gouvernements de pays industriels, et même dans celles de quelques pays en voie de développement. Ce concept n'attire pas seulement les gouvernements mais il attire aussi les entreprises, les centres de recherches et de formations et les chercheurs. Par exemple en France et selon le la délégation interministérielle à l'aménagement du territoire et à l'attractivité régionale (DATAR), le nombre d'entreprises et de centres de recherche membres de pôle de compétitivité a augmenté de 50 % entre 2008 et 2012 en France. Les chercheurs aussi ont produit une centaine d'ouvrages sur ce thème ces vingt dernières années. Ces réseaux ont de quoi séduire ; ils permettent de créer des synergies en mutualisant les moyens, de développer de nouveaux produits, et de s'ouvrir à des nouveaux marchés. Trois des points forts de ce concept sont aussi la collaboration publique-privée, la collaboration chercheurs-entreprises, et l'accès des petites et moyennes entreprises à des budgets de recherche et de développement. Pourtant ce concept 'magique' est loin d'être homogène et clair, pour plusieurs raisons. Déjà par son appellation qui a évolué de « district industriel » en Italie, et « système productif localisé » en France, à « cluster » au Pays basque et aux Etats-Unis, à « Kompetenznetze » (réseaux de compétences) en Allemagne ou encore dernièrement à pôle de compétitivité en France. En effet, toutes ces appellations représentent des systèmes d'agglomération des parties prenantes, mais elles divergent sur plusieurs niveaux: comme par exemple sur l'industrie qu'ils couvrent, par leur étendue géographique, le type et le nombre de leurs acteurs, leurs missions, leur financement, leur gouvernance et l'implication politique de l'État dans leur gestion.

Aujourd'hui, malgré leur popularité et la profusion de recherches qui les traitent, ces systèmes d'agglomération souffrent encore de plusieurs lacunes scientifiques et méthodologiques vue leur jeunesse. Ainsi les pôles de compétitivité sont encore un objet de recherche en construction, et offrent de nombreuses perspectives de recherche. Pour le moment, leurs applicateurs « apprennent en marchant ». Au-delà de l'effet de mode, le système d'agglomération d'entreprises est aussi devenu primordial grâce à sa rentabilité économique et à sa capacité à réduire les incertitudes et optimiser les opportunités survenues avec la mondialisation. La mondialisation de l'activité économique a accentué la compétition entre les territoires, et a engendré un risque de délocalisation des acteurs économiques vers de nouveaux territoires, et en même temps une opportunité d'attirer les acteurs qui se sont délocalisés vers d'autres territoires. Les États, les entreprises et les centres de recherche ont volontairement adopté la démarche de territorialisation des secteurs afin de limiter le risque de délocalisation de voir leurs entreprises, leurs mains d'œuvre qualifiée et leurs chercheurs s'expatrier, et leurs clients se fournir ailleurs. Cette démarche pourra dans l'idéal, leur permettre de bénéficier aussi des opportunités offertes par la mondialisation et d'attirer de nouveaux acteurs. Afin de gérer au mieux ce phénomène de territorialisation, les différents décideurs ont ressenti le besoin d'un système de gestion de cette agglomération géographique. De ce besoin est né le concept de réseau de compétitivité et les autres systèmes s'en rapprochant, au sein desquels l'État, les pouvoirs locaux, les entreprises, les centres de recherche et de formation, collaborent pour rendre un territoire géographique plus compétitif. Selon l'Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques (OCDE), « la compétitivité du tourisme pour une destination donnée correspond à la capacité du lieu à optimiser son attractivité pour les résidents et les non-résidents, afin de proposer au consommateur des services touristiques de qualité, novateurs et attrayants (bon rapport qualité-prix) et de gagner des parts de marché sur le marché intérieur et mondial, tout en garantissant que les ressources disponibles à l'appui du tourisme soient employées de manière efficiente et durable ». En matière de compétitivité dans le tourisme, des outils de comparaison internationaux se développent. Dans le cadre de cette étude nous utiliserons le modèle de comparaison internationale le plus utilisé et mentionné: l'indice de compétitivité du voyage et du tourisme (Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, TTCI) développé par le forum économique mondial en 2007. Suite à la revue de littérature et à l'analyse des expériences internationales sur les clusters, nous recommanderons la forme du réseau le plus approprié au cas du Liban. Pour le développement et la gouvernance de cette structure nous suivrons la démarche suivante: • Constitution d'un noyau fondateur ou groupe porteur du réseau • Développement du règlement interne du réseau • Définition de la vision du réseau • Sélection des indicateurs de la compétitivité de l'œnotourisme au Liban • Diagnostic de la compétitivité de l'œnotourisme au Liban • Définition des missions du réseau • Sélection de l'action et des projets prioritaires • Recrutement de nouveaux membres en fonction des besoins des projets • Suivi et contrôle des projets • Mise à jour des indicateurs, des priorités et des membres du réseau Le pôle de compétitivité pour le tourisme au Liban pourra idéalement inciter à la création de pôles pour d'autres secteurs économiques porteurs au Liban, tels que le secteur médical ou encore le secteur de l'énergie.

لقد كان الدافع وراء اختيار مجلس الخدمة المدنية كعنوان لدراستنا و موضع لبحثنا هذا ، ما يمثّله هذا الصرح الإداري من ركن أساسي و جوهري من أركان الإدارة العامة اللبنانية باعتباره جهاز مستقل منشأ لدى رئاسة مجلس الوزراء يتولّى شؤون الوظيفة العامة و الإدارة العامة و العمل على تحسينها و تطويرها بما يمكنه من تنفيذ سياسات و توجهات الدولة بكفاءة و فاعلية و العمل على رفع مستوى الخدمات للمواطنين . و عليه لا نبالغ إن قلنا أن المجلس هو عصب الإدارة اللبنانية و الأب الصالح لكافة الإدارات العامة و حجر الأساس في انتظام شؤون البلاد و العباد. و بناءً عليه طرحنا الإشكالية التالية: "في غمرة الحديث عن الإصلاح الإداري ، ما هي العوائق والتحدّيات التي تعترض عمل مجلس الخدمة المدنية باعتباره منشأ الإصلاح وراعيه " في البداية تطرقنا إلى فكرة إنشاء مجلس الخدمة المدنية التي تعود إلى العام 1958 و الغاية من ورائه، والتي يمكن تلخيصها بإبعاد المداخلات السياسية عن الإدارة و تأمين حصانة للموظفين ، وعرضنا للإدارات والأقسام التي يتألف منها وأوضحنا للقارئ المهام والصلاحيات المنوطة به بشكل واضح و مفصّل فضلاً عن عرض مبسط لهيكليته الحالية واختصاص وصلاحيات كل إدارة وكل مصلحة وقسم فيه . بحيث اتضح لنا بشكل جليّ أن المشترع أولى هذا المجلس صلاحيات واسعة ومتنوعة تشمل جميع الإدارات العامة و المؤسسات العامة و البلديات الكبرى . واعتبرنا أن تحديث الإدارة العامة في لبنان هو باتساعه وشموله ضرورة إنمائية تقتضيها المتغيرات السياسية والإقتصادية والثقافية التي أفرزها نظام العولمة، فإما أن تجرَّنا هذه التطورات خلفها بلا إرادة وبلا قدرة على المنافسة وإمّا أن يكون لنا دور في هذا العالم وتكون إدارتنا قادرة على التكيُّف مع هذه المتغيِّرات لا بل تستبقها. لذلك انتقلنا في القسم الثاني من دراستنا إلى معاجة الثغرات و العوائق و التحدّيات التي تعترض عمل المجلس وتم توزيعها على عدّة فقرات على الشكل التالي: أولا الثغرات و العوائق التشريعية و التنظيمية أ- إدارة الموظفين: عرضنا في هذه النبذة إلى ضرورة تعديل هيكليّة مجلس الخدمة الملحوظة بموجب المرسوم رقم 8337/1961 و تحديداَ هيكلية إدارة الموظفين نظراً إلى أهميّة إنماء العنصر البشري في الإدارة العامة كركن أساسي من أركان العملية الإصلاحية و الإنتقال من مفهوم إدارة شؤون الموظفين إلى مفهوم إدارة الموارد البشرية. ب- إدارة الأبحاث والتوجيه: أشرنا في هذه النبذة إلى أهمية هذه الإدارة و دورها المركزي في تنظيم الإدارة اللبنانية و ضرورة تعديل نص المادة 6 من المرسوم رقم 7486/2002 و إعادة النظر في هيكلية هذه الإدارة بحيث تُضاف مصلحة مستقلة في مصلحة التطوير الإداري و أيضاً تعديل نص المادة 5 من المرسوم رقم 12740 و حصر صلاحية النظر في مشروعية عقود الإيجار التي تبرمها الإدارات العامة بهذه الإدارة و حدها دون غيرها . ج- تأمين استقلالية المجلس: بحيث شدّدنا على ضرورة تعديل نص المادة 97 من المرسوم الإشتراعي رقم 112/1959 التي تفسح المجال للوزير و للسلطة السياسة التدخل في أعمال المجلس ، وبالتالي جعل الكلمة الفصل في تفسير أحكام قانون الموظفين لمجلس الخدمة دون سواه عملاً بمبدأ فصل السياسة عن الإدارة د- تأمين حصانة الموظف: أشرنا في هذا السياق إلى ضرورة تعديل نص المادة 3 من المرسوم رقم 3196/1972 التي تجيز إعفاء أي موظف من الفئة الأولى من مهام وظيفته و وضعه بتصرُّف رئيس مجلس الوزراء وذلك دون أن يكون قد ارتكب أي خطأ أو إهمال أو تقصير تفادياّ للتعسُّف باستعمال السلطة . ه- أنظمة المباريات: لفتنا النظر إلى ضرورة تعديل نص الفقرة 7 من المادة 8 من نظام الموظفين المتعلقة بمهلة السنتين و التي تتيح للإدارة المختصة التهرب و التملص من نتائج المباريات ، كما أشرنا إلى ضرورة تعديل أنظمة المباريات و ربطها بعملية التوصيف و التصنيف الوظيفي التي أسهبنا في شرحها . ثانياً:العوائق و التحديات البشرية أشرنا في الفقرة إلى الشغور الوظيفي القاتل الذي يعاني منه مجلس الخدمة في كافة أقسامه و مراكزه بالأرقام و بلوائح مفصّلة بحيث أن عدد الموظفين الملحوظ في الملاك هو 163 بينما الموجود فعليا هو 46 ! و هذا ما يعد كارثة بشرية يجب معالجتها إذا ما أخذنا بعين الإعتبار ان نجاح وتقدّم أي إدارة مرهون بتوفُّر العنصر البشري المطلوب كفاءةً و عدداً. ثالثاًالعوائق و التهديدات اللوجستية عرضنا في هذه الفقرة بالصور الحسيّة الواقعية للواقع المتردّي لمبنى مجلس الخدمة إن من حيث ضيق مساحته أو من حيث افتقاره إلى أبسط مقومات الصحة و السلامة العامة وطالبنا باعتبار واقع مبنى المجلس بنداً طارئاً على طاولة مجلس الوزراء وضرورة إقرار مشروع بناء صرح إدري يكون أشبه بمجمَّع إداري تتوافر فيه كل المقومات التي تليق بواجهة الإدارة اللبنانية و بيتها المركزي ، وأشرنا أيضاً إلى افتقاره للتجهيزات المعلوماتية والتكنولوجية الحديثة المتطورة . رابعاً: العوائق و الثغرات التنظيمية في هذه الفقرة ألقينا الضوء على ضرورة تفعيل دائرة الإعلام والعلاقات العامة ذلك أن بقاء أي منظمة يعتمد بصفة أساسية على مدى قدرتها على بناء صورة عامة ترضي جماهيرها وشدّدنا أيضاً على ضرورة تفعيل دائرة المراجعات والشكاوى بما يؤدي ذلك إلى تمتين العلاقة بين الإدارة والمواطن وتحسين عمل الإدارة والإرتقاء بمستوى خدماتها .

خامساً: العوائق و التحدّيات المالية لفتنا النظر باللوائح و الأرقام إلى الموازنة الضئيلة المخصصة لمجلس الخدمة مقارنة بالمهام والمسؤوليات الجمّة الملقاة على عاتقه و طالبنا بضرورة زيادة موازنة المجلس لكي يتمكن من ملء الشواغر لديه والقيام بمهامه على أكمل وجه. بالإضافة إلى عوائق و تحدّيات أخرى أوضحناها للقارئ في متن دراستنا بحيث وصلنا إلى نتيجة مفادها أن معظم العوائق و التحديات التي يعاني منها المجلس ليست نتيجة إهمال أو تقصير من القيِّمين عليه إنما هي نتيجة ثغرات تشريعية تنظيمية ونتيجة سياسات الإهمال و التجاهل التي انتهجتها الحكومات المتعاقبة منذ العام 1990 و حتى اليوم نتيجة الوضع اللبناني المأزوم على كافة المستويات، وفي الوقت عينه شدّدنا على أنه وبرغم هذه العوائق وتلك التحديات لا يزال مجلس الخدمة بفضل عزيمة وإصرار رئيسه و إدارييه و موظفيه ،صامداً متولياً شؤون الإدارة اللبنانية و شجونها ومعاناتها قابضاً على جمرة الإصلاح في يده آملاً من السلطة السياسية إزالة تلك العوائق من أمامه ليقدم لهم إدارة حديثة تدهش العالم. وعليه تقدّمنا في نهاية القسم الثاني من دراستنا بجملة مقترحات و توصيات لتعديل النصوص التشريعية والتنظيمية وإيلاء مجلس الخدمة الإهتمام الكافي وإعطائه الدعم التقني والمالي المطلوب، وفي النهاية ختمنا بحثنا ودراستنا بالقول: لقد أضحى الإنجاز سمة الإدارة الحديثة في الوقت الذي ما زلنا فيه نجهد لجعل التقصير إنجازاً والأوهام حقائق والحسابات الضيّفة قضايا وطنية، فضلاً عن أن طائفية الوظيفة العامة تُمارس تأثيراً سلبياً يُعيد تقسيم الإدارة العامة إلى مراكز نفوذ يُضَحَّى فيها بالكفاءات لحساب الولاءات المصطنعة التي تُغيِّب الولاء الوطني الكبير . إن مجلس الوزراء اليوم والسلطة السياسية أمام امتحان كبير: فلبنان اليوم بحاجة إلى ثقافة سياسية و إدارية جديدة ، بحاجة إلى إدارة عامة يسري في عروقها دمٌ فتي شاب مثقف مطّلع على ما يجري في العالم و مؤمن بلبنان وطناً للحضارة والإنسان، و الفرصة سانحةٌ الآن! بوجود كل من فخامة رئيس الجمهورية العماد ميشال عون عرّاب نهج التغيير والإصلاح ، ودولة رئيس مجلس الوزراء سعد الحريري الذي أثبت بفضل حكمته و حنكته أنه رجل دولة من الطراز الرفيع، و حضرة رئيس مجلس الخدمة المدنية القاضي فاطمة الصايغ عويدات صاحبة التاريخ العريق في القضاء الإداري اللبناني، فهل نُحسن التقاط هذه الفرصة ؟ ونطوِّر أنفسنا وتكون لنا بداية واعِدة في حِمى القانون و المؤسسات ؟ الساحات تنتظر الرجال و الرجال للمهمات الصعبة.

Quality assurance and enhancement represent a challenge for any organization irrespective of its size, operation and geographical presence. While some might claim that it is even more challenging for new establishments, others consider it as a chance to build solid quality assurance and enhancement foundations since inception before change becomes too complex and costly. Quality assurance and enhancement is very contextual and requires careful design and articulation taking into account the domestic country conditions and legal framework while trying to match best regional and international standards and practices through benchmarking.

In this work, we address one of the key challenges in developing a quality assurance framework at Al Maaref University, a newly established private and not-for-profit university in Beirut, Lebanon. The challenge is the lack of an external national and inter-institutional benchmark mechanism that allows the university to safeguard the academic and institutional standards of education, assuring the quality of the learning opportunities offered to students, promoting continuous and systematic improvement process and ensuring the implementation of transparency in information policy.

Despite the fact that Al Maaref University has a decree, (No. 7265); from the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to operate as a legitimate and recognized entity that can issue higher education degree awards in a range of disciplines in the Lebanese higher education sector, there is no current national reference point that enables the university across its governance, organization and faculties to measure, monitor and periodically review and appraise its educational and institutional performance. This situation has always been a conundrum in the development of a 'nested' checks and balances in the quality assurance framework (standards management, quality enhancement and transparency policies) that is uniquely shaping a tripartite organizational alignments; governance, institutions and academics. This work tries to devise provisional, however, strategic means of 'quasi-external' and 'anticipatory' reference points of good practices, including the outcomes of the current membership to the *UGSC 2.0 initiative to benchmark the form, content and processes of Al Maaref University's quality assurance and enhancement framework.

Model of interaction between Universities and Enterprises: Case of Lebanon

Professor Hassan Ayoub, Razan Rassoul Economics and Management department, Lebanese University, School of business Lebanese International University; ayoub.henri@gmail.com; razan.rasoul@liu.edu.lb

The 21st-century society necessitates new skills. These requirements are no exception in Higher Education (HE) because it is important that education evolves and doesn't become stagnant. The more educated a country's population is, the better since education is vital for social and economic development, and HE is a key component in the maintenance of a country's competitiveness in the global economy. "It is very important to invest in HE as a major force in building an inclusive and diverse knowledge society to advance research, innovation and creativity" (UNESCO, 2009); as proclaimed in the Communiqué adopted by the participants of World Conference on HE in July 2009

Higher education experts say that universities are coming under increasing pressure to ensure that their graduates are 'employable', although preparation for 'employability' is still only rarely incorporated in university courses, and the skills that could make a difference in finding employment and ways to deliver those skills are still not evident.

"There is growing awareness of the need to link education to employment," said Nicholas Burnett: Managing director of the Results for Development Institute in Washington, DC, and a former assistant director general for education at UNESCO where he was head of the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report. "The global recession or slowdown is provoking a reaction that there may be a problem on the supply side; that you've got all this unemployment because people don't have the right skills," said Burnett.

The Lebanese educational system offers high quality education and 77% of young, well-educated people under 35 years of age emigrated between 2004 and 2009. Over half of those emigrants held university degrees which in turn causes a loss for Lebanon in terms of economic and social advancement. On the other hand, there is a 24% unemployment rate in Lebanon especially among university graduates. After about a years-time of seeking a decent job worthy of their education without success, they tend to emigrate after not finding employment or refusing to take a job that is well below their qualifications. We can clearly apprehend that there is a mismatch between the supply of university graduates and the skills the labor market demands. These supply-demand failings in the labor market are preventing young people from finding a suitable job that fits their qualifications. Therefore, there is some sort of gap between the skills taught at university and what the labor market requires. It has been evident in the past year in the richest countries that education is focusing on skills required by the workforce and not literacy in general to promote economic growth (Yojana Sharma 2013). Deborah Roseveare, head of the Skills Beyond Schools Division of the OECD's Education Directorate in Paris, said there was a shift towards looking at skills and their effective utilisation. This acknowledgement is growing in emerging economies and should take major attention in Lebanon because there is debate in developing nations on what should succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) takes center stage in the next two years. Innovation is "without the right skills, people languish on the margins of society, technological progress doesn't translate into economic growth, and countries can't compete in today's economies", said Andreas Schleicher, advisor on education to the OECD secretary general, pointing out that now "accumulating knowledge matters a lot less". We will analyze different types of interactions between universities and enterprises. The major questions that will be addressed are how frequently universities and enterprises should interact and the benefits both sectors will attain; what skills are required id today's dynamic environment and what and how innovation should be adapted.

Bibliography Eun, J. H., Lee, K., & Wu, G. (2006). Explaining the "University-run enterprises" in China: A theoretical framework for university-industry relationship in developing countries and its application to China. Research Policy, 35(9), 1329-1346. Ferns, S., & Zegwaard, K. E. (2014). Critical assessment issues in work-integrated learning. Fraser, K., & Ryan, Y. (2013). Could MOOCs answer the problems of teaching AQF-required skills in Australian tertiary programmes?. Australian Universities' Review, The, 55(2), 93. Perkmann, M., & Walsh, K. (2007). University-industry relationships and open innovation: Towards a research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 9(4), 259-280. Santoro, M. D., & Gopalakrishnan, S. (2001). Relationship dynamics between university research centers and industrial firms: Their impact on technology transfer activities. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 26(1-2), 163-171.

1. Contexte L'analyse et la caractérisation chimique des matériaux sont des enjeux majeurs dans de nombreux domaines scientifiques. Parmi les techniques d'analyse utilisées dans les laboratoires, l'ablation laser couplée à la spectrométrie de masse à plasma à couplage inductif (ICP-MS) constitue une technique de choix pour l'analyse multi-élémentaire et isotopique d'ultra-traces d'éléments dans tout type de matériaux solides. Malgré les atouts de cette technique, sa résolution spatiale est limitée: en raison de la diffraction de la lumière, le faisceau laser ne peut pas être focalisé sur une région de la surface d'intérêt de dimension inférieure à la moitié de la longueur d'onde incidente. Il en résulte, dans le meilleur des cas, des tailles de cratères ainsi que des résolutions latérales de l'ordre de quelques micromètres. Cette résolution est insuffisante pour la caractérisation de "structures" de surface ayant des dimensions sub-longueur d'onde comme l'analyse des échantillons nanoélectroniques, biologiques, géologiques… Afin d'améliorer la résolution spatiale de la technique d'ablation laser classique, l'effet de champ proche consistant à amplifier le champ électromagnétique du laser très localement a été mis à profit [1-4].

2. Approches Une technique d'analyse innovante combinant un laser Nd:YAG nanoseconde, un microscope à force atomique AFM et un ICPMS a été développée. Cette technique nommée ablation laser en champ proche couplée à l'ICPMS permet de s'affranchir de la limite de diffraction de la lumière et de répondre aux besoins actuels d'analyse élémentaire qualitative et quantitative des matériaux solides à l'échelle nanométrique. Le principe consiste à illuminer une pointe conductrice de l'AFM, placée à quelques nanomètres de la surface d'un échantillon, par un faisceau laser dont l'éclairement est inférieur au seuil d'ablation de la pointe et des matériaux d'intérêt. Grâce à cette extrême proximité de la pointe par rapport à l'échantillon, le champ électromagnétique du laser est amplifié entre la pointe et la surface à analyser, c'est l'effet de champ proche. Cette amplification concentre le laser très localement et aboutit à l'ablation. Le diamètre des cratères obtenus est de l'ordre de grandeur du diamètre de la pointe (dizaines à centaines de nanomètres). La matière ablatée est ensuite transportée et analysée par l'ICP-MS.

3. Résultats L'ablation laser en champ proche dépend de plusieurs propriétés: le laser (fluence en mJ/cm², longueur d'onde, durée d'impulsion, fréquence de tirs du laser…), la pointe (nature, diamètre, géométrie...), l'échantillon (échantillon conducteur/semi-conducteur, distance pointe-échantillon…). Une étude multiparamétrique a été réalisée afin de définir l'influence de chacun de ces paramètres sur l'efficacité de l'ablation en champ proche, la résolution spatiale, les dimensions des cratères et la quantité de matière ablatée [4]. Les résultats obtenus ont permis d'optimiser les conditions d'ablation en champ proche: - La nature et le diamètre de la pointe influencent la résolution latérale. Pour un seul tir laser sur les différents échantillons testés (Au, Si), une résolution latérale d'environ 100 nm a été obtenue avec une pointe en silicium revêtu de diamant conducteur (diamètre de l'ordre de 200 - 250 nm). - La distance pointe-échantillon et la fluence du laser sont des paramètres importants qui affectent les dimensions du cratère et en particulier la profondeur du cratère. Par exemple, pour une seule impulsion laser à 100 mJ/cm² et avec une distance pointe-échantillon de 5 nm, les cratères obtenus ont des dimensions de 100 nm de diamètre et 10 nm de profondeur sur un échantillon d'or. - Le cumul de tirs laser sur une position fixe de la pointe influencent les dimensions des cratères et sur la quantité de matière ablatée. En utilisant la même pointe, près de 190 fg d'or sont ablatés après 200 tirs laser pour seulement ~ 2 fg après un seul tir laser. - La nature de l'échantillon solide est de grande importance sur l'efficacité de l'ablation en champ proche. Pour les mêmes conditions expérimentales et après 200 tirs, une masse d'environ 190 fg d'or est ablatée pour seulement 6 fg environ de silicium, l'ablation étant plus efficace sur un échantillon conducteur. Un code de modélisation a été appliqué pour comprendre et expliquer les résultats d'ablation nanométrique obtenus. Ce code permet de décrire la distribution de la température du laser pendant et après l'interaction de l'impulsion laser avec l'échantillon. Les résultats théoriques calculés avec ce code sont en bon accord avec les dimensions des cratères ablatés. Ce code montre que l'ablation en champ proche semble être dominée par le chauffage surfacique des matériaux testés et par la diffusion thermique tridimensionnelle (de l'ordre du diamètre de la pointe).

4. Conclusion La technique d'ablation laser en champ proche a été mise en évidence sur deux types d'échantillons solides: conducteur et semi-conducteur. Une résolution latérale de l'ordre de 100 nm a été démontrée. Les principaux paramètres affectant l'ablation laser en champ proche et la quantité de matière ablatée ont été définis. Les résultats expérimentaux obtenus ont été validés par un code de modélisation théorique basé sur l'étude du chauffage pendant et après l'interaction de l'impulsion laser avec l'échantillon.

1 - Introduction Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are harmful to human health and environment. Toluene was studied as VOC because aromatics are present in many industrial and automotive emissions and have a high Potential of Creation of Photochemical Ozone (PCPO=67) [1]. Total catalytic oxidation is an attractive method in controlling these emissions due to the great amounts of energy saved, by the moderate temperature involved. The selection of an efficient support is of particular importance to obtain catalysts with good performance because the state and the structure of the support strongly influence the type of the formed metal oxide species and their dispersion. In our case, an unconventional support hydroxyapatites Hap (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) was used because of its low cost and high thermal stability and Hap based materials have recently attracted great attention in the VOC removal either by adsorption [2] or by oxidation [3]. Noble metals were found to be active and selective towards CO2 in VOC oxidation. However, due to the limited availability and the price of noble metals, we were interested in a low loading of this kind of metals (0.5 wt.%). The present work is devoted to the preparation of three different apatitic supports: stoichiometric HapS (Ca/P molar ratio=1.67), calcium-deficient HapD (Ca/P=0.9) and calcium-rich HapE ((Ca+Na)/P=2.2) apatites and their impregnation by noble metal platinum. Then it focuses on the investigation of their catalytic behavior towards total oxidation of toluene. In order to highlight the effect of the support and for comparison purpose, 0.5 wt.% of Pt were also impregnated on γ-Al2O3. Keywords: hydroxyapatite, platine, toluene, VOC catalytic oxidation

2 - Experimental/methodology The solids were prepared in two steps i) preparation of Hap supports by precipitation of an aqueous solution of calcium nitrate by a solution of ammonium dihydrogenophosphate as described elsewhere [4], the samples were calcined at 400 °C for 4 h and ii) impregnation of 0.5 wt% of Pt on these hydroxyapatite supports (and on γ-Al2O3) and the calcination of the resulting solids at 400 °C for 4 h. The as-obtained solids are designated by Pt/HapY, where Y represents the type of hydroxyapatite (S, D or E). All materials have been examined using appropriate textural and bulk techniques, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy, nitrogen porosimetry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and hydrogen pulse chemisorption. Catalytic total oxidation of 800 ppmv of toluene in air was also studied.

3 - Results and discussion The three hydroxyapatite supports were first tested in toluene oxidation reaction and they were found to be weakly active since toluene conversion was incomplete below 400 °C. The incorporation of Pt to the supports enhanced the toluene conversion at low temperature. Overall, at the temperature range 140-160 °C, Pt/Al2O3 shows better activity than Pt/HapY. However at temperatures above 160 °C, our best catalysts (Pt/HapS and Pt/HapE) were more active than the Pt loaded on conventional support alumina (Fig.1). Sample Pt4+/(Pt2++Pt4+) DPt / % Pt/HapE 0.26 55 Pt/HapS 0.17 65 Pt/HapD 0.33 46 Dispersion of Pt Fig.1. Toluene conversion over Pt/HapY and Pt/Al2O3 catalysts (800 ppmv toluene in air) Table 1. The ratio Pt4+/(Pt2++Pt4+) determined by XPS on Pt/HapY and the Pt dispersion determined by chemisorption

The XPS analyses revealed the presence of Pt species in different oxidation states (Pt2+ and Pt4+) and in different proportion depending on the support composition (Table 1). Pt4+ species derived from the incomplete decomposition of the Pt(NH3)4(NO3)2 precursor. Based on the H2 chemisorption measurement, the Pt dispersion on the HapE, HapS, and HapD supports was calculated to be 55, 65, and 46 % respectively (Table 1). Then it seems that the lowest dispersion of Pt at the surface of HapD could be related to the formation of higher quantity of Pt4+ species which impacts on the catalytic activity. 4 - Conclusions In this study, the addition of low content of platinum (0.5 wt%) on the hydroxyapatite supports was evaluated for the oxidation reaction of toluene. It has been shown that the addition of Pt significantly improved the catalytic activity and selectivity. The best catalytic result observed using Pt/HapE and Pt/HapS could be explained by the highest Pt dispersion and the lowest Pt4+/(Pt2++Pt4+) ratio which clearly depends on the support composition.

Acknowledgements Authors would like to thank the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) - Région du Moyen-Orient and IRENI project for financial supports. This work was also supported by a grant from the project PHC CEDRE 2015 N° 32933QE.

References [1] R.G. Derwent, M.E. Jenkin, S.M. Saunders, M.J. Pilling, Atmos. Environ. 31 (1998) 2429. [2] T. Kawai, C. Ohtsuki, M. Kamitakahara, M. Tanihara, T. Miyazaki, Y. Sakaguchi, S. Konagaya, Environ. Sci. Technol. 40 (13) (2006) 4281. [3] D. Chlala, J.-M. Giraudon, N. Nuns, C. Lancelot, R.-N. Vannier, M. Labaki, J.-F. Lamonier, Appl. Catal. B Environ. 184 (2016) 87. [4] L. Silvester, J.-F. Lamonier, R.-N. Vannier, C. Lamonier, M. Capron, A.-S. Mamede, F. Pourpoint, A. Gervasini and F. Dumeignil, J. Mater. Chem. A 2 (2014) 11073.

1. Introduction Interest in the dry reforming of methane (DRM) has been increasing owing to the production of syngas (CO and H2) and to the removal of greenhouse gases (CH4 and CO2) [1]. The most common active components used for the DRM are the transition elements in group VIII such as Ru, Rh, Pt, Ir, and other transition elements such as Ni and Co [2,3]. However, the deactivation caused by the potential coke deposition on the catalysts of this reaction is the main drawback for industrial application; carbon being produced by secondary reactions [2]. Mixed oxides-based catalysts containing transition metal cations are often used, and can be easily obtained by a controlled thermal decomposition of the layered double hydroxides (LDHs), which are also known as hydrotalcite-like compounds. The chemical composition of LDHs may be presented by the general formula [MII+1-xMIII+x(OH)2]x+ (Ax/n)n-.y H2O where MII and MIII are divalent and trivalent metal cations respectively, x is the mole fraction of the trivalent cation, An- is the anion of compensation and y is the degree of hydration. The calcination of these materials results in the formation of solid basic Layered Double Oxide (LDO) that exhibit excellent catalytic performances such as small crystal size, basic character, high dispersion and large specific surface area [4], required for heterogeneous catalysts [3]. Thus, the aim of the present work is to incorporate different cations such as Co, Ni, and Mn (Mn oxides being active in hydrocarbon total oxidation reactions [5]) in the LDH structure, in order to improve its properties towards methane reforming. In addition, the effect of Ru (0.5 wt%) impregnation on the catalytic performances of the prepared solids towards the same reaction will be investigated.

2. Results Co2Mg4Al2O9, Co1Ni1Mg4Al2O9, Co2Ni2Mg2Al2O9, Ni2Mg4Al2O9 and Co2Mn4Al2O9, were synthesized using hydrotalcite route [6] and calcined 4 h at 800 °C under a flow of air. Ru (0.5 wt%) impregnation was carried out on these samples followed also by a calcination at 800 °C. The solids were characterized by different techniques such as differential thermal analysis and gravimetry (DTA/TG), infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), etc. After calcinations at 800 °C, the hydrotalcite structure of the solids was completely destroyed. This is demonstrated by the absence of the characteristic lines of hydrotalcite in the XRD patterns and the appearance of new phases. These new phases are attributed to a mixture of different oxides such as the spinels CoAl2O4, NiAl2O4, MgAl2O4 and the oxide CoMnO3 [7]. Figure 1 illustrates the evolution of methane conversion as a function of the reaction temperature. As noticed, with increasing reaction temperature, the conversions of CH4 increased. Furthermore, the catalytic performance, according to the methane conversion, follows the order: Co2Ni2Mg2Al2O9 > Co1Ni1Mg4Al2O9 ~ Ni2Mg4Al2O9 > Co2Mg4Al2O9>Co2Mn4Al2O9. The impregnation of Ru gave similar results to those of the samples without Ru.

Figure 1: Methane conversion versus reaction temperature over the studied catalysts 3. Discussion Co and Ni are more active in DRM than Mn. Furthermore, Co decreases the amount of deposited carbon [8] but gives rise to lower activity than Ni. Therefore, it could be deduced that the use of Ni as an active phase involves high activity in terms of methane conversion. Tsyganok et al. [9] have investigated Ni-Mg-Al LDH as potential catalysts in the dry reforming of methane; after 6 h, 95 % of methane conversion was reached. They noted that small Ni crystallites on the catalysts surface were highly dispersed inside the LDHs' structures. Hence, high catalytic performance should be achieved.

4. Conclusions In this work, Ni, Co, Mg, Mn, Al mixed oxides catalysts were successfully obtained via hydrotalcite route. Their activity, with or without impregnation of Ru, in the DRM was studied. Ru did not improve the catalytic activity but it is expected that it will improve the resistance of the catalysts towards poisoning by impurities present in the biogas (H2S, H2O, siloxanes ...). The tests in the presence of these impurities will be made later in this work. Similarly, the stability of the prepared materials will be examined. The results that will be obtained and the physicochemical characterization after aging tests allow us to better understand the catalytic process.

5. References [1] K. Takanabe, K. Nagaoka, K. Nariai, K. Aika, Journal of Catalysis, 232 (2005) 268-275. [2] H. Long, Y. Xu, X. Zhang, S. Hu, S. Shang, Y. Yin, Journal of Energy Chemistry, 22 (2013) 733-739. [3] P. Tan, Z. Gao, C. Shen, Y. Du, X. Li, W. Huang, Chinese Journal of Catalysis, 35 (2014) 1955-1971. [4] X. Yu, N. Wang, W. Chu, M. Liu, Chemical Engineering Journal, 209 (2012) 623-632. [5] M. Piumetti, D. Fino, N. Russo, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 163 (2015) 277-287. [6] C.Gennequin, S. Siffert, R.Cousin, A. Aboukaïs, Topics in Catalysis, 52 (2009) 482-491. [7] L. Wang, D. Li, H. Watanabe, M. Tamura, Y. Nakagawa, K. Tomishige, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 150-151 (2014)82-92. [8] K. Takanabe, K.I. Nagaoka, and K. Aika, Catalysis Letters, 102 (2005) 153-157. [9] A.l. Tsyganok, T. Tsunoda, S. Hamakawa, Journal of Catalysis, 213 (2003) 191-203.

Many orally administrated drugs elicit not only bitter taste but also unpleasant odors leading to low palatability. Acceptance of drug intake is highly dependent on palatability and patients; Kids might refuse future doses because of the bitter taste. Taste masking has traditionally accompanied drug formulation. The incorporation of essential oils (EOs) in medicines to mask bitterness is a straightforward method that still presents several challenges [1]. The major issue is the low solubility of EOs that limits their incorporation in medicines. Moreover, they do evaporate and they are highly susceptible to environmental conditions (light, heat, oxygen and humidity) suggesting a need for encapsulation. A method of enhancing EOs solubility is their molecular encapsulation by cyclodextrins (CDs). CDs are non-toxic cyclic oligosaccharides derived from the enzymatic degradation of starch [2]. The three most common native CDs are made up of six, seven or eight glucosyl units and called α-CD, β-CD and γ-CD, respectively (Figure 1). CDs have a truncated cone shaped structure with a hydrophilic external surface and a relatively hydrophobic interior cavity enabling them to encapsulate guests and form inclusion complexes in solution and solid state.

CD derivatives are receiving much interest, since they have higher aqueous solubility than native CDs and enhanced binding affinities and selectivity [3]. Captisol® (sulfobutylether-β-cyclodextrin, SBE-β-CD) is a polyanionic derivative of β-CD developed for the encapsulation of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Captisol® was rationally designed to maximize safety and improve the performance of the native CD (solubility, stability, bioavailability and interaction with guest). However, no previous study attempted to investigate its ability to encapsulate, retain and enhance the aqueous solubility of EOs and their individual components. The aim of this study was to evaluate, for the first time, the ability of Captisol® to encapsulate the main volatile components (camphene, β-caryophyllene, p-cymene, eucalyptol, estragole, limonene, myrcene, α-pinene, β-pinene and γ-terpinene) of six essential oils (EOs) (Artemisia dracunculus, Citrus reticulata Blanco, Citrus aurantifolia, Melaleuca alternifolia, Melaleuca quinquenervia and Rosmarinus officinalis cineoliferum). Its performance was compared to that of hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD). The ability of Captisol® to generate controlled release systems of EOs components was also explored.

Static-headspace-gas chromatography (SH-GC) was used to determine the affinity between the EOs components and CDs. A new Total Organic Carbon (TOC) method was applied to evaluate the effect of Captisol® and HP-β-CD on the aqueous solubility of EOs by carrying out phase solubility studies. Then, the ability of Captisol® to generate controlled release systems was examined by multiple headspace extraction (MHE). Kf values underlined a better binding potential of Captisol® towards all guests compared to HP-β-CD. Phase solubility diagrams showed that both Captisol® and HP-β-CD greatly increased the apparent solubility of EOs. The increase in EOs aqueous solubility ranged from 5 to 99-fold and form 5 to 87-fold with Captisol® and HP-β-CD, respectively. The solubilizing potential was inversely proportionate to the EOs intrinsic solubility. MHE results indicated that Captisol® delayed release-rate kinetics of EOs. This proved that Captisol® allowed the generation of controlled release systems. This study provides the first proof that Captisol® is an efficient carrier to enlarge the application of EOs and their components in pharmaceutical formulations.

1. Pein, M., Preis, M., Eckert, C., & Kiene, F. E. (2014). Taste-masking assessment of solid oral dosage forms--a critical review. International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 465(1-2), 239-54. 2. Crini, G. (2014). Review: a history of cyclodextrins. Chemical Reviews, 114(21), 10940-75. 3. Kfoury, M., Auezova, L., Greige-Gerges, H., & Fourmentin, S. (2015). Promising applications of cyclodextrins in food: Improvement of essential oils retention, controlled release and antiradical activity. Carbohydrate Polymers, 131, 264-272.

The continuous increase in fossil fuel consumption has fatally boosted the atmospheric CO2 concentration to a hazardous level. This alarming issue has urged the researchers to put their efforts into minimizing the effect of climate change by exploring new green energy sources i.e. by production of fuel resources from reduced CO2. Converting CO2 into useful biofuels offers a great potential to decrease the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and consequently resolve the problem of greenhouse gases. Biofuels have recently attracted considerable attention for the conversion of the chemical energy to electricity.

Here, we report on the enzymatic electrochemical reduction of CO2 to formic acid using the enzyme formate dehydrogenases (FDH) combined with the cofactor NADH (reduced Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide). A three-dimensional polyacrylonitrile (PAN) material was prepared by electrospinning combined with gold sputtering in order to obtain a conductive nanofibers material (Figure 1) used as a confinement nanostructure to immobilize the enzyme [1]. This nanostructured material offers a large surface area that improves the enzymes stability and consequently improves the performance of the bioelectrodes. During the preparation of the bioelectrodes, the redox mediator methylene green (MG) was employed for the regeneration of NADH in solution [2]. Prior to the FDH immobilization, the surface of the gold/PAN nanofibers was modified by electropolymerization of the MG to form an active redox poly(MG) film. The enzyme was mixed with carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) to improve the electrical connections. A layer of chitosan (CS) was finally deposited to entrap the enzymes and inhibit their leaching out of the matrix. This innovative method of enzyme immobilization enhanced the electrochemical activity and the stability of bioelectrodes. Therefore, a current density of -630 µA/cm2 was obtained for one week old samples (Figure 2). The performance of the gold/PAN nanofibers bioelectrode remains, after 1 month, three times more effective than a flat bioelectrode without PAN nanofibers. The significant improvement in terms of performance and stability of these bioelectrodes makes them promising candidates for biofuel cell applications. In addition to our interest in electrochemistry, we are willing to use this new type of electrode in other research field such as the design of high performance biosensors and electrochemical devices, thanks to the improved properties in terms of current density, performance and stability.

Le biofouling est l'accumulation de microorganismes, plantes, algues ou animaux sur des surfaces humides entraînant la formation de biofilms. Ces biofilms ont un fort impact sur les dispositifs médicaux (prothèses, implants dentaires…), dans l'industrie alimentaire (contamination microbienne des surfaces) mais aussi sur les navires (augmentation du poids, problème de manœuvrabilité…). L'objectif de cette étude est l'élaboration de biomatériaux à base d'alginate antibactériens en vue d'applications marines. L'alginate, extrait d'algues brunes, est un polymère biocompatible présentant de nombreuses utilisations comme dans la gastronomie moléculaire. L'alginate de sodium, soluble dans l'eau, peut être gélifié par l'ajout d'ions calcium Ca2+, de cuivre Cu2+ ou en zinc Zn2+. Récemment, en 2013, Parveen et al [1] a élaboré des hydrogels à base d'alginate contenant des nanoparticules d'argents réduits par Cassia auriculata. En effet, il est connu que les ions Ag+ présentent des propriétés antibactériennes. De même, Straccia et al en 2015 [2] ont réalisé des hydrogels d'alginate en utilisant du carbonate de zinc. Pour ces deux études, les matériaux ont été testés sur des souches de bactéries classiques telles que E.coli, B.subtilis, S.auréus et L.monocytogènes. Les nanoparticules d'argent étant coûteuses, nous avons privilégié l'utilisation d'ions de zinc et de cuivre moins chers et biocompatibles. Les hydrogels que nous avons élaborés, ont été obtenus en versant sur une solution d'alginate de sodium de concentration 5% massique une solution contenant des ions divalents (Ca2+, Cu2+ ou Zn 2+) formant un gel insoluble. La figure 1 représente les différents types d'hydrogels élaborés contenant du calcium, du cuivre, du zinc ou un mélange de ces ions.

Les différents hydrogels ont été testés sur 4 types de souches de bactéries marines. Ces différents matériaux ont été positionnés sur une plaque de 24 puits. A l'intérieur de chacun de ces puits, une souche de bactéries et son milieu de culture ont été ajoutés. Après 48h d'incubation à température ambiante, la croissance des bactéries et leur adhésion sur les puits ont été mesurées. A titre d'exemple, la figure 2 présente les résultats obtenus pour une souche de bactéries Vibrio Aesturianus. Cette bactérie cause une surmortalité des huitres. Les résultats de ces tests montrent que contrairement à l'alginate de calcium, les alginates de cuivre et de zinc ont une influence sur la croissance des bactéries ainsi que l'adhésion de ces bactéries sur les puits.

Cette étude a montré la possibilité d'élaborer des hydrogels d'alginate incluant différents types d'ions (Ca2+, Cu2+, Zn2+). Les premiers tests prouvent que l'ajout des ions Cu2+ ou Zn2+ conduit à des propriétés antibactériennes du matériau élaboré. Au final, les résultats des 4 souches de bactéries marines seront présentés et analysés lors de la conférence.

Tumor-derived exosomes are shown to promote cancer survival and outgrowth by paracrine signaling through the delivery of their miRNA content to recipient cells. Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS) is an aggressive childhood soft tissue tumor. It is characterized by a genetic translocation leading to a fusion oncogenic protein PAX3-FOXO1 (P3F) that mediates its aggressive phenotype. We investigated the role of P3F on exosome content and its effects on recipient cells. Myoblasts are thought to be the cell of origin of RMS. We transduced mouse myoblasts (C2C12 cells) with vector containing the P3F fusion oncoprotein and isolated the secreted exosomes to determine their differential effects on recipient cell proliferation, invasion, migration and anchorage independent growth. We investigated the exosome miRNA cargo induced by P3F transduction, using Affymetrix microarray analysis. P3F expression in mouse myoblasts enhanced cell proliferation and colony formation in soft agar. Exosomes secreted by P3F-expressing myoblasts significantly enhanced recipient cell proliferation, invasion and migration. Array analysis revealed unique miRNA enrichment signatures in exosomes derived from P3F-transduced cells compared to control. Knockdown of mir-486-5p significantly reverted the effects of exosomes implying a role in P3F-specific paracrine signaling in tumor progression. In this study, we have identified specific effects of the P3F oncogenic fusion protein on paracrine signaling in myoblasts and P3F-derived exosomes on recipient cells. P3F expressing cells specifically upregulate miR-486-5p in exosomes to enhance its oncogenic abilities. Findings will help devise targeted therapeutic interventions in ARMS, which are urgently needed.

In order to conserve body fitness, gut homeostasis should be maintained by a continuous replacement of lost cells through the activity of Intestinal Stem Cells (ISCs). In Drosophila, an ISC self renew to generate a new ISC and a daughter progenitor called enteroblast, which differentiate into either an enterocyte or an enteroendocrine cell. The intrinsic genetic program required to coordinate this process is not completely understood. Our results show that Shavenbaby (Svb) transcription factor directly integrates Wnt and EGFR signaling pathways to regulate both the maintenance and proliferation of ISCs. Interestingly, Svb is also required to the differentiation of the enterocyte lineage. This dual Svb function is modulated by the local activity of pri sORF peptides, which restrict processing of the Svb into a transcriptional activator form in the ISCs. Other data related to the function of Svb during tumorogenesis will be discussed.

Introduction: The kidneys have a vital homeostatic role in the excretion of nitrogenous waste products and regulation of blood composition in mammals. Renal development occurs between embryonic day (E) 8.5 and post-natal day (P) 2. The Rb and p53 pathways are master regulators of cell division and senescence in many organs. Previous studies have demonstrated that p53 is required for early renal development particularly during nephrogenesis, and metanephroi differentiation at later stages. Hence, p53 knockout mice exhibit abnormal metanephric and uterine development, however, this effect is strain-specific and not embryonic lethal. The role of Rb in kidney development has not been addressed to date. We recently generated an inducible deletion of Rb in p53-null mice during development that resulted in perinatal lethality with almost complete penetrance of the phenotype due to severe kidney failure.

Methods: We used an inducible Nestin-CreERT2-YFP/YFP system to conditionally delete Rb in p53-null (-/-) and Rb flox/flox mice, separately. Nestin is an intermediate filament protein specifically expressed in neural precursors in the brain, and, in mesodermal cells and theirs derivatives in the developing kidney. Only few animals survived the combined loss of Rb and p53 when carried at E18.5 but not at earlier stages, and their phenotype was analyzed at P40. To characterize the morphological and developmental defects observed in these animals, we performed: 1) histological analysis using Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining, and 2) immunostaining to examine the expression of key developmental genes in the kidney including the podocyte-specific marker, Nestin, and the differentiation marker, NeuN. To study the specific roles played by p53 and Rb in kidney development, we further generated double conditional knock-out mice (dcKO) Rb cKO-/-, p53 cKO-/- by crossing Rb/p53 double floxed/floxed mice and Nestin-CreERT2-YFP/YFP mice and induced recombination at different time-points between E13.5 and P60.

Results: We compared the kidney phenotypes in p53-/-; Rbflox/flox mice treated with tamoxifen and vehicle only, and detected the presence of severe renal developmental defects manifested by hypoplastic kidneys with dilated renal tubules and possible glomerular hypertrophy as well as severe kidney failure as indicated by a 5-6 fold increase in blood creatinine levels. We also studied the kidney phenotypes in p53+/+; RbcKO-/- mice compared with vehicle-treated controls. H&E staining revealed no difference in kidney morphology upon loss of Rb alone.

Conclusion: Rb and p53 are both required for normal kidney development and control critical developmental pathways that are indispensable for proper renal morphogenesis and function.

Adult T-cell Leukemia (ATL) is a mature T-cell neoplasm associated with human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV-1) infection. Due to intrinsic chemo-resistance and immunosuppression, the prognosis of ATL is poor with a median survival rate of 6 months after disease onset. According to the disease manifestations, several studies have displayed that the combination of Arsenic (As) and Interferon alpha (IFN-α) shows promising therapeutic potential against ATL with minimal adverse effects. With an approach to enhance the in vitro efficacy of these two targeted therapies used against ATL, we aimed to investigate the anti-cancer effects of Thymoquinone (TQ), the active principle of Nigella sativa, with lower concentrations of As and IFN-α, either alone or in combination on Human HTLV-1 positive (C91) and HTLV-1 negative (CEM) CD4+ malignant T-cell lines following 24 or 48 hours of treatment. The efficacy of single and combination treatments was investigated using several assays including cell viability, cell cycle analysis, apoptosis, mitochondrial membrane disruption and western blot analysis. TQ/As/IFN-α combination resulted in pronounced time-dependent inhibitory effects on cell viability when compared to single and double treatments. The triple combination, in comparison to TQ single- and As/IFN-α- double treatments, significantly induced apoptosis, enriched the pre-G1 population, disrupted the mitochondrial membrane potential and induced caspase-dependent apoptosis. The latter was confirmed by the cleavage of caspase 3, caspase 9 and PARP as well as the downregulation of the expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 by western blots. Human HTLV-1 negative CEM cells were more sensitive to TQ/As/IFN-α compared to the resistant HTLV-1 positive C91 cells. Collectively, our results suggest a strong possibility of synergistic efficacy of TQ in combination with As and IFN-α for the treatment of CD4+ malignant T-cells. Therefore, this triple combination holds promise as a potential therapeutic approach for ATL patients.

We describe and compare the distinct roles played by Rb in neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus (DG) in the hippocampus and the olfactory epithelium (OE) during development as well as in the DG and the olfactory bulb (OB) during adult neurogenesis. The Retinoblastoma protein, Rb, was found to be implicated in telencephalic-specific functions such as control of cell proliferation, differentiation and survival. However, it remains unclear whether these functions are conserved among different regions in the developing telencephalon on the one hand and during neurogenesis in the adult brain on the other hand. In this study, we investigate and compare the role played by Rb during neurogenesis in the embryonic DG and OE as well as the adult DG and OB. We crossed Foxg1-Cre (Brain-Factor 1; telencephalon-specific marker) and Nestin-CreERT2-YFP/YFP (neural stem cells and progenitors marker) mice with Rb+/flox (Control) and Rbflox/flox (Mutant) mice in order to generate Rb-conditional knock-out mice during embryogenesis and postnatal life, respectively. We analyzed the resulting phenotypes using immunohistochemistry. In the absence of Rb, we detected an increase in cell proliferation and apoptosis in immature neuronal progenitors (NeuroD+/Ki67+ and NeuroD+/AC-3+) in the DG but not in the OE. However, this phenotype was observed in late progenitors/immature neurons (Tuj1+ and DCX+) in both sites. Moreover, loss of Rb negatively affected neuronal migration in the olfactory system. This distinctive role for Rb is likely due to the early expression of Foxg1 (Cre-driver) in the dentate lineage compared to the OE lineage. During postnatal neurogenesis, Rb-null neural progenitor cells (but not stem cells) displayed increased proliferation (Ki67+; YFP+) without any obvious migration or differentiation defects (DCX+;YFP+ and NeuroD1+;YFP+) in both the DG and the adult subventricular zone (SVZ). However, loss of Rb severely compromised the survival of mature neurons (NeuN+; AC-3+) in both neurogenic sites with accelerated cell death in the DG compared with the OB. We conclude that Rb is an essential regulator of progenitor cell development as well as neuronal production and survival (both inhibitory and excitatory neurons) in the embryonic and the adult brain. However, this role is lineage-dependent and directly linked to the stage in neurogenesis at which loss of Rb is induced.

The aim of this work is to investigate the effect of S1P on colonic Na+/K+ ATPase and determine the mediators involved using its analogue FTY720P and Caco-2 cells as a model. The activity of the Na+/K+ ATPase was assayed by measuring the amount of inorganic phosphate liberated in presence of ouabain. FTY720P (7.5 nM, 15 min) exerted a significant inhibitory effect on the ATPase.This effect disappeared completely in presence of JTE-013, a specific blocker of S1P2 receptor. The inhibition disappeared also in the presence of calphostin (PKC inhibitor), wortmanin (PI3K inhibitor) and indomethacin (cyclooxygenase inhibitor). Treatment with PGE2 showed a similar inhibition to that of FTY720P. It was concluded that FTY720-P inhibits the ATPase by activating PKC, PI3K, and stimulating PGE2 production.

The human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-1) is the causative agent of adult T-cell leukemia (ATL), a disease with very poor prognosis. The anthracyclin doxorubicin (Dox) is an antibiotic first isolated from Streptomyces peucetius. Dox is commonly used in clinic to treat solid and hematological tumors including acute leukemia. However, reports of early onset of tumor resistance to treatment with Dox as well as severe complications in response to treatment with Dox remain major limitations in Dox chemotherapy. Combination therapy has emerged as a substitute to conventional treatments especially against tumors that are resistant to traditional chemotherapeutics or for the reduction of side effects of drugs. In light of the promising potential of thymoquinone (TQ), the active principle of Nigella sativa, in combination studies, we sought to combine the toxic chemotherapeutic drug Dox with TQ and investigate their anticancer potential in an ATL in vitro model. To this end, the cytotoxicity and anticancer potential of TQ and Dox were assessed in HTLV-1 positive HuT-102 and HTLV-1 negative Jurkat cells. We also investigated the mechanism of cell death and the combination treatment effect on the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential as well as the expression levels of target proteins involved in cell cycle modulation and cell death. The cell viability MTT assay revealed that the combination of TQ and Dox was more effective than separate treatments in both HTLV-1 positive and negative cells. Analysis of the cell cycle showed an increase in the proportion of cells in the sub-G1 cell population after the combination treatment. This was correlated with an increase in mitochondrial membrane potential due to ROS production. TUNEL assay confirmed that the combination treatment enhanced apoptosis significantly in both cell lines. Finally, western blot analysis further confirmed the implication of apoptotic pathway in the response to single and double treatments as revealed by the cleavage of PARP, by inhibition of the p65 which governs the inhibition of the NF-κB pathway, and by the increase in H2AX histone protein expression level that marks DNA damage

Na+/K+ ATPase is a major regulator of cell volume, which is a very important characteristic of cell homeostasis. Any alterations in hepatic cell volume are associated with a wide range of liver diseases and disorders. Sphingosine 1- phosphate has an emerging role in the development of liver diseases. Previous studies from our lab demonstrated that sphingosine 1-phostohate (S1P) exerts a stimulatory effect on the Na+/K+ ATPase activity in hepatic carcinoma cell line (HepG2).The aim of this study is to examine the effect of FTY720P, a S1P analogue that has been approved recently by US-FDA as a treatment for multiple sclerosis, on the activity of the ATPase in HepG2 cells and determine its secondary messengers. Discovering the mode of action of FTY720P will help in reducing any undesirable side effects for the drug by inhibiting the specific mediators involved. The preliminary results indicate that FTY720P exerts a similar stimulatory effect to that of S1P on the Na+/K+ ATPase by binding to S1P receptor type 3 and activating PKA, PKC, ERK and COX enzymes.

Introduction: Benzofuran is a heterocyclic compound consisting of fused benzene and furan rings. It is the parent of many related compounds with more complex structures. An increasing interest in assessing its structure-activity relationship (SAR) has risen in the last few years and studies have focused on its biological and pharmacological effects. Inflammation precedes the development of colon cancer, thus targeting inflammation in cancer is promising therapy since several cancers are tightly associated to inflammation. Aim: In our study, we synthesized 9 benzofuran-derived compounds and determined their anti-inflammatory effect in bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDM). The SAR was assessed to determine the modification responsible for the anti-inflammatory effect. Methods: Western blotting was conducted to detect the expression of pro-inflammatory enzymes, iNOS and COX-2 in LPS-induced BMDM. An enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to determine the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, IL-6 and TNF-alpha. The level of secretion of prostaglandin E2 was measured using enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA). A Griess assay was used to demonstrate the inhibitory effect these derivatives on the overproduction of nitric oxide (NO). Furthermore, the phosphorylation of the transcription factor NFKB was tested. Results: 5 out of 9 benzofuran derivatives have suppressed LPS-stimulated inflammation Conclusion: By comparing the structure and the anti-inflammatory effect of the 9 derivatives, we can say that the presence of bromine and the ester group rather than the carboxylic acid one is important for the anti-inflammatory function.

Introduction: Adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) is an aggressive form of malignancy caused by human T-cell lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV-1). Currently, there is no effective treatment for ATL. Thymoquinone has been reported to have anti-cancer properties. Objective: The aim of this study is to investigated the effects of TQ on proliferation, apoptosis induction and the underlying mechanism of action in both HTLV-1 positive (C91-PL and HuT-102) and HTLV-1 negative (CEM and Jurkat) malignant T-lymphocytes. Materials and methods: Cells were incubated with different thymoquinone concentrations for 24h. Cell cytotoxicity was assayed using the CytoTox 96® Non-Radioactive Cytotoxicity Assay Kit. Cell proliferation was determined using CellTiter 96® Non-Radioactive Cell Proliferation. Cell cycle analysis was performed by staining with propidium iodide. Apoptosis was assessed using cell death ELISA kit. The effect of TQ on p53, p21, Bcl-2 protein expression was determined using Western blot analysis while TGF mRNA expression was determined by RT-PCR. Results: At non-cytotoxic concentrations of TQ, it resulted in inhibition of proliferation in a dose dependant manner. Flow cytometric analysis revealed a shift in the cell cycle distribution to the PreG1 phase which is a marker of apoptosis. Also TQ increase DNA fragmentation. TQ mediated its anti-proliferative effect and apoptosis induction by an up-regulation of TGFβ1, p53 and p21 and a down-regulation of TGF-α and Bcl-2α. Conclusion: Thymoquinone presents antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects in ATL cells. For this reason, further research is required to investigate its possible application in the treatmentof ATL

Metastasis is the movement of a tumor from its original site to a secondary site. The ability of cancer cells to metastasize depends on their motility and actin rich membrane protrusions. These protrusions and motility are regulated by Rho GTPases. Rho GTPases are 20KD proteins that act as molecular switches. Rho G, our protein of interest, belongs to this family and is known to almost have the same sequence and function as Rac1 and Cdc42. Literature states that RhoG is involved in cell motility, actin cytoskeleton, and many signaling mechanisms. Previous studies showed that RhoG plays a role in the invasive behavior of glioblastoma cells. Also, RhoG was found to be overexpressed in many tumor tissues. In this paper, we studied the role of RhoG in migration and invasion of astrocytoma cells. To study the effect of RhoG on motility, cells were transfected either with si-Luciferase or with si-RhoG (oligo 5 and 8). The results show that upon RhoG knockdown, the motility of Snb-19 cells decreased. This characteristic was further elucidated through immunostaining. Here, the cells were knocked down using si-RhoG and stimulated with PMA. Our results showed that the ruffles are RhoG independent and that the inhibition of RhoG forms stress fibers. Invasion assay also showed a decrease in cell invasion when RhoG was knocked down. Similarly, the adhesion assay revealed a decrease in adhesion of Snb-19 cells upon RhoG knockdown. Finally, a pull-down assay was done for the Rho family GTPases which include RhoA, Rac and Cdc42. Knocking down RhoG only decreased the active form of RhoA which implies a relation between RhoG and RhoA. Indeed, RhoG like other previously tested Rho GTPases is involved in cancer metastasis. It does so by positively regulating cell motility and invasion. Further studies need to be done to elucidate the exact function of RhoG on such characteristics.

Les protéoglycanes jouent un rôle important dans la régulation de plusieurs mécanismes cellulaires ceci grâce à leur capacité d'interactions avec des médiateurs solubles. La synthèse de leurs chaînes de glycosaminoglycanes (GAGs), est initiée par la xylosyltransférase (Xylt-I) qui catalyse le transfert d'une molécule D-xylose sur un résidue sérine de la protéine core. Des études ont montré l'implication de PGs dans différentes pathologies telle que le cancer, l'arthrose, la chondrodysplasie. Cet enzyme a fait l'objet de plusieurs études récentes qui ont pu identifier un disfonctionnement qui a causé un nanisme chez une famille turc, et de mutations de cet enzyme chez des patients Polonais. Toutes ces études ont suggérées l'implication de la Xylt-I dans le développement squelettique. Cependant, les mécanismes qui lient la Xylt-I et les perturbations squelettiques ne sont pas encore identifiés. Afin d'élucider le rôle de la Xylt-I au dans le développement ostcoarticulaire, nous avons pour établi de souris invalidées pour le gène de la Xylt-I. Les observations phénotypiques, les analyses microscopiques et les analyses de l'expression transcriptomique et protéique par hybridisation in situ et immunohistochimie ont montré que: 1) un nanisme, et une réduction de la taille des membres de ces souris déficientes en Xylt-I, 2) une désorganisation des cellules de la plaque de croissance, 3) une réduction de la zone hypertrophique, 4) une différence d'expression de certains marqueurs de chondrogenèse (sox9, col10), d'ossification (ostéocalcine), d'arthrose (MMP13) et une dérégulation de la voie de signalisation de la MAPK ERK1/2.

Le dépistage de malformation chromosomique fœtale est réalisé par des tests non invasifs dont les résultats servent d'indicateurs de prescription de tests invasifs. La recommandation actuelle est d'associer la mesure de la clarté nucale fœtale au premier trimestre, le dosage maternel de PAPP-A et de β-hCG libre à l'âge maternel. Cette stratégie a une sensibilité de 80 à 90%. En revanche, le triple test, effectué entre la 14ème et la 18ème semaine d'aménorrhée plus 6 jours par un dosage de trois hormones sériques (β-hCG, AFP, uE3) dans le sang maternel reste en premier rang parmi les tests non invasifs prescrits au Liban malgré sa fiabilité limitée pour calculer le risque d'une grossesse affectée par une malformation congénitale. Ce test est réalisé par différentes techniques (chimiluminescence, électro chimiluminescence, ELISA) pour le dosage des marqueurs associé à un programme informatique qui prend en compte tous les paramètres disponibles (les dosages, l'âge de la maman, l'âge de la grossesse, le résultat de la prise de sang, le résultat de la clarté nucale) pour calculer le risque, ou la probabilité que l'enfant soit porteur d'une anomalie. Une enquête a été menée auprès de 20 laboratoires sur les techniques et les logiciels utilisés pour le triple test. L'étude a montré que l'appareil « Immulite 1000 » de principe chimiluminescent, est le plus utilisé pour le dosage des trois marqueurs sériques. Il s'est avéré que le résultat de cette technique est plus sensible pour le dosage de β-hCG et plus spécifique pour le uE3. Il est donc difficile de trouver une technique unique du point de vue sensibilité et spécificité pour le dosage des marqueurs de ce test surtout que différents logiciels sont utilisés dans le calcul du risque. Un triple test a été effectué, à la 14ème semaine d'aménorrhée, dans trois laboratoires utilisant des techniques et des logiciels différents mais astreints à des contrôles de la qualité des mesures. Les résultats obtenus sont effectivement différents et reflètent un risque de malformation dans deux laboratoires alors que l'échographie est normale. D'où l'importance de réévaluer les équations utilisées par les logiciels de calcul du risque, pour diminuer la marge d'erreur et améliorer la validité du dépistage si on tient vraiment au triple test.

« Permettez à vos aliments d'être votre médicament,et à votre médicament d'être votre aliment. »(Hippocrate) Afin de lutter contre les maladies du siècle, plusieurs médicaments et antibiotiques sont utilisés. Leur consommation exagérée et irresponsable les rend de plus en plus inefficaces. D'où l'importance de la phytothérapie qui repose sur l'emploi de plante médicinale, telle que l'olivier, comme remède. L'huile d'olive libanaise possède une activité antimicrobienne qui selon les études varie selon la souche bactérienne, la quantité de l'hydroxytyrosol dans l'huile, sa date de fabrication et sa conservation. Une étude microbiologique a été réalisée sur 2 échantillons d'huile différents A et B en utilisant deux techniques : l'une, à température ambiante, dans le but de déterminer l'efficacité d'une huile sur une contamination microbienne probable dans nos cuisines et l'autre à 37⁰C, dans le but de se rapprocher des conditions in vivo. Dans la première technique deux germes ont été choisis, les Staphylococcus aureus, et Streptococcus D déjà mentionnées dans la littérature comme étant respectivement sensible et résistant à l'action de l'huile. Ces deux germes ont été inoculés dans les tubes d'huile A et B, puis un volume d'inoculum a été ensemencé sur une gélose au sang à t0 et t24h. Les résultats du dénombrement to et t24hmontrent que, pour les deux bactéries, une augmentation du nombre de colonies dans l'huile A et une diminution importante dans l'huile B ont été observées. Cela pourrait être expliqué par le fait que l'huile A est un milieu plus ou moins favorable à la poussée bactérienne du fait qu'il soit le plus ancien et vu sa faible concentration en hydroxytyrosol d'après la littérature. Dans l'étude de l'effet antimicrobien des huiles d'olive à 37⁰C, les germes suivants ont été étudiés : Staphylococcus aureus (AAF), Staphylococcus blanc (AAF), Streptocoque D(Anaérobie aérotolérant), Pseudomonas non aeruginosa (AS), Klebsiella(AAF), Escherichia coli (AAF) ; Escherichia coli BLSE (AAF). Le choix a été dirigé en particulier vers des bactéries AAF afin d'éliminer le facteur d'étouffement par l'huile. Pour chacun des 9 germes étudiés, 2 à 3 colonies sont ensemencées respectivement dans du bouillon nutritif, du NaCl, l'huile A et l'huile B. Les tubes ont été ensuite incubés à 37°C pour 30 min puis un volume d'inoculum a été ensemencé sur gélose au sang et Muller Hinton et incubé à 37°C pour 24h.Les résultats du dénombrement montrent que les poussées à partir des huiles sont moindres que celles obtenues dans du NaCl et du bouillon nutritif inoculés. De plus, les poussées dans l'huile A sont supérieures à celles dans l'huile B. Un effet bactéricide de l'huile B a été observé sur les Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus blanc et Pseudomonas non aeruginosa. La poussée de Streptococcus D est moins importante dans les tubes contenant les huiles A et B par rapport aux autres tubes mais elle est presque identique dans les deux tubes. La poussée de Klebsiella a été inhibée dans l'huile B plus que dans l'huile A sans qu'il n'y ait une chute considérable du nombre. Cela démontre l'effet bactériostatique de l'huile d'olive sur Klebsiella. Cette étude confirme l'hypothèse que l'huile d'olive possède une action sur la multiplication bactérienne.

Rationale: Despite the advances in the medical management of breast cancer, significant toxicities accompany the potential benefits of its treatments: oral sequelae could affect nutritional status and quality of life, decreasing therefore patients' life expectancy. This study assessed the relationship between oral health and nutritional status in senior breast cancer sufferers. Methods: This was an observational cross-sectional study. A consecutive sample of non-institutionalised elderly aged 65 years or more was recruited from oncologic and primary care outpatient units in Beirut. Data were collected from a questionnaire including the mini-nutritional assessment index, the geriatric oral health assessment index (GOHAI) and questions about perception of xerostomia. Oral examination recorded the presence of oral lesions. Results: 117 women were included. The sample comprised 21 breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, 35 receiving non-chemotherapy regimen, 31 in complete remission without treatment and 30 non-cancer patients. 42% of participants undergoing chemotherapy were malnourished or at risk of malnutrition. Oral health perceptions was worst in chemo¬therapy patients, followed by patients receiving non chemo-treatment regimen and was better in participants in complete remission and non-cancer patients (p-value<0.001). The presence of oral lesions was significantly more frequent in patients taking chemotherapy (p-value<0.001). Nutritional status was linked to the breast cancer treatment regimen (p-value<0.001), presence of oral lesions (p-value=0.040), perception of xerostomia (p-value=0.010), and GOHAI score (p-value<0.001). Conclusions: The presence of oral lesions and chemotherapy were highly associated with nutritional status in older patients with breast cancer. Dental professionals should interfere preventively and per-therapy to optimize oral health status in elderly breast cancer patients.

Le sommeil fait partie des fonctions vitales de l'organisme. Il est non seulement un facteur de bonne santé, mais il conditionne également la qualité et la rapidité des apprentissages. La détection des troubles du sommeil chez les adolescents est difficile, mais aussi essentielle puisque les adolescents d'aujourd'hui ont un rythme de vie infernal. Avec la présence de l'internet, la télévision, les téléphones portables et les sorties entre amis, il n'est pas étonnant que la plus part d'entre eux négligent leurs hygiène de sommeil. Au Liban, et surtout chez les adolescents Libanais, on ne connait ni la prévalence ni la gravité des principaux troubles du sommeil et même l'épidémiologie de la préférence circadienne intitulée chronotype. Notre équipe de recherche a décidé de mener une enquête ayant deux principaux objectifs: tout d'abord la validation chez les adolescents Libanais de l'index de sévérité d'insomnie (ISI) et de deux sous échelles du Sleep-50 questionnaire: l'impact sur l'activité diurne et le somnambulisme. Ensuite, découvrir les habitudes du sommeil, les styles de vie et les différents facteurs de risque, la distribution du chronotype ainsi que les principaux troubles du sommeil chez les adolescents du Liban. Ont participé à l'étude préliminaire de validation (Novembre - Décembre 2015) 104 élèves âgés de 14 à 19 ans. La validation linguistique, la reproductibilité et la consistance interne des tests à valider ont été réalisées. Des six provinces du Liban, environ 3000 élèves âgés de 14 à 19 ans ont participé à la seconde étude (Février - Juin 2016). Tous les tests à valider ont montré une bonne consistance interne ayant tous un alpha de Cronbach supérieur à 0.6. Le coefficient de corrélation intra-classe (ICC) de ISI selon un test-retest a montré une excellente corrélation de la version française (ICC= 0.914, IC=0.856 -0.949) et une bonne corrélation de la version anglaise (ICC= 0.762, IC=0.481-0.890). En ce qui concerne les habitudes du sommeil des adolescents, nous avons constaté que 23.8 % des étudiants interrogés souffrent de nuisances nocturnes le soir avant de dormir, 84.3 % des élèves surfent sur internet avant de se coucher et 80 % sont incapables de se lever d'une façon autonome et spontanée durant la semaine. Les adolescents interrogés ont un temps total de sommeil (TST) durant la semaine inférieur à 8 heures, et les adolescents âgés de 16 à 19 ans ont même un TST inférieur à 7 heures 30 minutes. Ceci explique en conséquence, la prévalence élevée des dettes de sommeil observée dans notre enquête (44.6%). De plus, d'après le calcul du milieu du sommeil corrigé en fonction de l'éventuelle dette de sommeil occasionnée par l'école (MSFSc), il s'est avéré que 11.14% des adolescents sont des sujets du soir alors que seulement 1.48% sont des sujets du matin. Enfin, 30 % semblent être atteints d'insomnie, 1.8% des participants s'avèrent être somnambules et 8.6% semblent souffrir d'anxiété et de dépression.

Introduction: Streptococcus pneumoniae is a commensal bacteria that can cause an estimation of 1 million episode of pneumococcal diseases ranging from non-invasive infections (acute otitis media, etc.) to more invasive infections (meningitis, etc.). With the disturbing increase rates of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, surveillance report are necessary in order to develop prevention and control programs. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to determine the carriage prevalence of S. pneumoniae among children of different socioeconomic status and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns, and to identify molecular mechanism of macrolide and fluoroquinolone resistance

Methods: S. pneumoniae identification was done using optochin susceptibility, α-hemolytic phenotype and latex agglutination. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed using the disk diffusion method according to the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) - 2016 recommendations. Detection of macrolide resistance determinant was performed using PCR technique while mutation detection within parC and parE was done using pyrosequencing.

Results: 57 children (54.8%) were carriers of S. pneumoniae from which 18 and 39 were isolated from private school students and orphanage school students respectively. Overall, resistance to oxacillin, tetracycline, cotrimoxazole, erythromycin, clindamycin and minocycline is respectively 77.2%, 29.8%, 29.8%, 22.8%, 19.3% and 17.54%. 13 out of 57 (22.8%) were resistant to macrolides from which 8 (8/13; 61.54%) were isolated from private school students and 5 (5/13; 38.46%) from boarding school students. 11 out all macrolide resistant strains (84.6%) presented a cMLSB phenotype while the 2 remaining strains (15.4%) expressed a phenotype M. In addition, all macrolide resistant strain expressed a co-resistance to oxacillin. In the other hand, no strain was found resistant to fluoroquinolones. Moreover, pyrosequencing confirmed the absence of any first step mutations within parC and parE genes.

Conclusion: Children with high socio-economic levels showed lower level of S. pneumoniae carriage compared to children with low socio-economic levels. Moreover, high levels of antibiotic resistance were observed in isolated strains. Therefore, more surveillance reports including a large number of human samples are required in order to develop prevention programs that limit the spread of resistant S. pneumoniae strains in Lebanon.

Aflatoxins (AF) are toxic metabolites that are produced by different kinds of fungi, namely Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus (Harper, 2003). AF production on food, is dependent on mold growth under specific humidity and temperature conditions. It occurs at different stages of food processing, transportation, and storage of crops (Creppy, 2002).

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) contained in animal feed is absorbed by the animal's gastrointestinal tract and later converted in the liver into aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) (Battacone et al., 2003). AFM1 could be detected in the blood of the animal within 15 min of AFB1-contaminated food ingestion and is then secreted in the milk of lactating animals (Fallah, 2010). AFM1 is not only considered to be carcinogenic and hepatotoxic to humans only but also to other animal species. During the early stages of its discovery, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified AFM1 as a group 2B carcinogenic agent. Further investigations on its toxicity led to its transfer to the group 1 human carcinogen (IARC, 2002). The maximum acceptable level of AFM1 in milk has been defined by most countries and ranges from as low as 0.05 µg/kg, as settled up by the European Union (European Commission, 2006), to 0.5 µg/kg, as settled up by the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA, 2005). Until now, different types of either chemical, physical or biological agents have been tested for their ability to remove AF from feed and food (Jaynes and Zartman, 2011). Several strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), including some probiotics as Lactobacillus rhamnosus, have been reported to effectively bind AF in contaminated milk and media (Peltonen et al., 2001).

In order to resist environmental stresses bacteria have established different mechanisms as biofilm formation. Over the last years, biofilm development has been observed in several industrial and domestic fields. Nevertheless, in the majority of cases the biofilm's growth has been undesirable. Different industries including: dairy, maritime, food, oil, paper, water systems, opticians, hospitals and dentistry have suffered from the negative effects of biofilms (Garrett et al., 2008).

Since the ability of LAB to form biofilm have been previously reported (Lebeer et al., 2007), this study was carried out to evaluate a novel technique for AFM1 detoxification using Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG biofilm. The biofilm was formed on styrene petri plates (60 mm) after 3 days of incubation. Starting from Day 3 the medium was renewed each 24 hours and optimum attachment of bacteria was detected on day 5. The formed biofilm was fixed by heat (65 °C, 1h), washed with sterile water to remove impurities then inoculated with 2 ml of AFM1 (5 µg/L). The AFM1 solution was inoculated on a single plate or transferred successively up to five plates. In order to increase the contact of AFM1 solution with the biofilm, plates were gently agitated for 30 seconds each. Subsequently, the supernatant was collected and residual AFM1 was quantified by HPLC. Depending on the number of plates used, the percentages of bound AFM1 by L. rhamnosus GG biofilm varied between 10% and 20 %. The amount of bounded AFM1 was not proportional to the number of transfers where the maximal binding of AFM1 was achieved on the first plate (10%). This difference may be possibly due to the attachment of AFM1 to the matrix components of the biofilm causing a loss in the specificity of binding of AFM1. In order to increase AFM1 binding, a bigger biofilm surface may be required and therefore the number of used plates should be increased. These preliminary results shed light on the positive effect that LAB biofilm may play and this was revealed by the ability of L. rhamnosus GG biofilm to bind AFM1 in liquid media.

Introduction: Antibiotic resistance is a major threat in global public health. There have been reports of a general lack of knowledge of correct antibiotic use and a lack of public awareness on the basic principles of antibiotic use, as well as indication for therapy. This study aims to assess public knowledge, attitude and practice of antibiotic use among the Lebanese population. Method: It is across sectional study in a community-based pharmacy setting in Lebanon. It uses a structured random interview to patients visiting community pharmacy seeking for antibiotics. Descriptive statistics were presented and multivariate logistic regressions were performed in data analysis.

Results: A total of 495 participate in the study. The study sample has in general low knowledge (average = 6) and attitude score (average=3.16). High proportion of Lebanese participants belief that antibiotics are used for treatment of common cough cold and sore throat symptoms (59%) or viral infections (53%). 42% prefer to take antibiotics from the pharmacy without physician prescription. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis, females showed better knowledge about antibioticscompared to males (ORa=1.59, 95%CI=1.01-2.53). Compared to participants aged >50 years old, the level of adequate knowledge about antibiotic was higher in those aged 25-50 years old (ORa=3.66, 95%CI=1.79-7.49). Moreover, participants with lower age have higher attitude score compared to older aged participants (ORa=3.89, 95%CI=1.52-9.94).

Conclusion:This study identified important knowledge and attitude gaps among general public in Lebanon. Future antibiotic awareness campaigns and patient counselling should be implemented to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance.

Inflammation is mediated by a complex-system that can be classified according to their source or chemical composition into; the inflammatory lipid-metabolites, the plasma-protein systems, the nitric oxide, and the cytokines. For the past years, the Eastern-Mediterranean natural products had provided potential anti-inflammatory agents. The increased development of side-effects of the older anti-inflammatory drugs has been challenged by newly discovered natural anti-inflammatory agents. The aim of the current work is to review the results related to the inflammation in terms of mechanisms, types, and present and future amelioration prospectives. Phytotherapies have helped to reduce our pain and suffering, doubling our life-span, and revolutionized the health-care profession, for many years. In addition, many anti-inflammatory agents are used commercially, or are potentially useful in medicine for purposes other than their anti-inflammatory action. They are used as gastro-protective agents, enzyme inhibitors, antitumor, and immunosuppressive agents. Thus, health-care professionals should be frequently informed about inflammation phytotherapies, bearing in-mind the benefit/risk pattern of the use of natural products in the amelioration of inflammation.

Cholesterol (CHOL) is an important lipid of mammalian cells and plays a fundamental role in many biological processes. A large number of membrane proteins, including receptors, ion channels, transporters and peptides have been shown to be affected by the presence of CHOL [1]. CHOL is present in different proportions based on the type of membrane and is known to modify membrane mechanical properties. CHOL modulates the packing density of lipids via the so-called "condensing and ordering" effect [2], thickness [3] and fluidity of lipid bilayers [4]. Due to this, CHOL is included in synthetic membranes used in drug delivery. The effect of CHOL content on membrane stability and drug release is not well clarified in the literature. Therefore, it would be valuable to define the best combination of lipids and CHOL that allows a required controlled release of an encapsulated molecule.

In our work, liposomes are used as model membranes. They are defined as spherical vesicles composed of an internal aqueous compartment entrapped by one or multiple concentric lipid bilayers. Liposomes present many advantages as follows: delivering both hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs, possessing targeting, controlled release, cell affinity, reducing toxicity and improving drug stability. In this study, liposomes are composed of binary mixtures of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and CHOL. DPPC was chosen in the liposomal formulation as its shows a sharp and thermotropic transition near the physiological temperature. Large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) are prepared by reverse phase evaporation technique (REV) at various DPPC:CHOL molar ratios of 100:0, 100:10, 100:20, 100:30, 100:50 and 100:100. The different batches encapsulating a fluorescent dye, sulforhodamine B (SRB), were subjected to extrusion and separation from unencapsulated molecules on Sephadex G25 column. The permeability study was carried out at 37˚C by monitoring the release of SRB from vesicles over 48 h. The high concentration of encapsulated SRB in liposomes led to self-quenching followed by an increase in the fluorescence signal due to the release of SRB. The dye release kinetics from various batches was compared to pure DPPC liposomes in order to investigate the effect of CHOL content on lipid bilayer permeability. CHOL induced a decrease in the bilayer permeability in a concentration-dependent manner. The release kinetics of SRB was analyzed using mathematical models such as zero-order, first-order, Higuchi and Korsmeyer-Peppas models. The release kinetics of SRB was found to be best-fitted in Higuchi and Korsmeyer-Peppas models which gave the highest correlation coefficient R2. This suggests that the release of SRB is governed by diffusion and other release mechanisms such as erosion and relaxation. This study will be useful for assessing drug permeability and predicting in vitro release of hydrophilic drugs (similar to SRB) from liposome formulations.

Keywords: cholesterol, DPPC membrane, fluorescence, mathematical models, permeability

References

[1] Grouleff, J., Irudayam, S. J., Skeby, K. K., and Schiott, B. (2015) The influence of cholesterol on membrane protein structure, function, and dynamics studied by molecular dynamics simulations. Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta-Biomembranes 1848, 1783-1795

[2] Rog, T., Pasenkiewicz-Gierula, M., Vattulainen, I., Karttunen, M. (2009) Ordering effects of cholesterol and its analogues. Biochim. Biophys. Acta, Biomembrane, 1788, 97−121.

[3] Seeger, H. M., Marino, G., Alessandrini, A., Facci, P. (2009) Effect of physical parameters on the main phase transition of supported lipid bilayers. Biophys. J., 97, 1067−1076.

[4] Redondo-Morata, L., Giannotti, MI., Sanz, F. (2012) Influence of Cholesterol on the Phase Transition of Lipid Bilayers: A Temperature-Controlled Force Spectroscopy Study. Langmuir 28: 12851-12860

The improvement of bioactive molecules efficiency can be provided by carrier systems (Nishi Mody et al., 2014). Considerable interest has been shown for dendrimers as a delivery system of bioactive agents (Gaofeng Pan et al., 2005). Dendrimers are a unique class of synthetic polymers having a highly branched, three dimensional, nanoscale structure with a low polydispersity (Hitesh Kulhari et al., 2011). It is composed of a core, branch units and terminal groups. Each layer of concentric branching units constitute one complete generation. Among the different types of dendrimers, poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) is the first to be synthetized, characterized and commercialized. It is based on an ethylendiamine core and an amidoamine repeat branching units. PAMAM is considered as a safe delivery system with lots of applications in different domains including biomedical and industrial applications (B. Klajnert and M. Bryszewska, 2001). The surface groups of PAMAM can be either NH2, OH or COOH. PAMAM-NH2 G4 possesses 64 terminal amines and its structure is shown in fig 1. Eugenol p-Coumaric acid Figure 1: Chemical structures of PAMAM-NH2 G4, eugenol and p-coumaric acid Eugenol (fig 1), the main component of clove essential oil is known to possess a wide range of biological activities including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, analgesic and antibacterial (Bachiega TF et al., 2012). It has been used in fragrance and flavoring industries. However, the poor water solubility, volatility and photosensitivity of eugenol remain serious drawbacks for its pharmaceutical or cosmetic applications. p-Coumaric acid (p-CA) (fig 1) is a hydroxyl derivative of cinnamic acid with many physiological actions including anti-oxidant, antimicrobial, anti-mutagenesis, anxiolytic, sedative, antitumor and immunoregulatory activities (Jin-Chun Cheng et al., 2007). The limited water solubility, stability and bioavailability have restricted the applications of p-CA in pharmaceutical and food preparations. In this study we investigated the interaction of the PAMAM-NH2 G4 dendrimer with eugenol and p-coumaric acid. The water solubility of the natural agents was determined in the absence and presence of PAMAM G4 at various concentrations (from 0.1 to 100 μM). The characterization of PAMAM-eugenol complexes was carried out with UV-visible, at various pH, to optimize the eugenol-dendrimer complexation. The presence of dendrimer modified the spectral characteristics of eugenol. The amine functions of PAMAM interact with eugenol leading to the appearance of a new peak at 346 nm. The latter appeared at pH 7, 10 and 12 and was not observed at pH 3. This phenomena can be explained by the different protonation levels of PAMAM G4: at high pH (> 10) the PAMAM is fully deprotonated or uncharged, at neutral pH (~7) the primary amines are protonated and at low pH (< 5) all primary and tertiary amines are protonated (Yi Liu et al., 2009). The dendrimer improved the water solubility of p-coumaric acid at pH 7 while it was not able to increase eugenol solubility. The interaction between PAMAM and p-coumaric acid occurred probably through an ionic interaction between the negative charge of the carboxyl group of p-coumaric acid and the positive charge of the terminal amine of PAMAM. These findings could be useful for the understanding of dendrimer/drug encapsulation. References Bachiega TF, de Sousa JPB, Bastos JK, Sforcin JM. (2012). Clove and eugenol in noncytotoxic concentrations exert immunomodulatory/anti-inflammatory action on cytokine production by murine macrophages. J Pharm Pharmacol 64, 610-616. B. Klajnert and M. Bryszewska (2001). Dendrimers: properties and applications. Acta Biochim. Pol. 48, 199-208. Gaofeng Pan, Yahia Lemmouchi, Emmanuel O. Akala, and Oladapo Bakare (2005). Studies on PEGylated and Drug- Loaded PAMAM Dendrimers. J. Bioact. Compat. Polym. 20, 113-128. Hitesh Kulhari, Deep Pooja, S.K. Prajapati, Abhay Singh Chauhan (2011). Performance evaluation of PAMAM dendrimer based simvastatin formulations. Int. J. Pharm. 405, 203-209. Jin-Chun Cheng, Fang Dai, Bo Zhou, Li Yang, Zhong-Li Liu (2007). Antioxidant activity of hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives in human low density lipoprotein: Mechanism and structure-activity relationship. Food Chem. 104, 132-139. Nishi Mody, Rakesh Kumar Tekade, and Prashant Chopdey, (2014). Dendrimer, Liposomes, Carbon Nanotubes and PLGA Nanoparticles: One Platform Assessment of Drug Delivery Potential. Am. Assoc. Pharm. Sci. 15, 388-399. Yi Liu, Vyacheslav S. Bryantsev, Mamadou S. Diallo, and William A. Goddard (2009). PAMAM Dendrimers Undergo pH Responsive Conformational Changes without Swelling. J AM CHEM SOC 131, 2798-2799.

Cytomegalovirus, a highly susceptible player in the development of breast cancer.

Al Moussawi Fa,c, Kumar Aa, Pasquereau Sa, Karam Wc, Diab Assaf Mc, Herbein Ga,b.

aDepartment Pathogens & Inflammation-EPILAB, UPRES EA4266, SFR FED4234, University of Bourgogne France-Comté (UBFC), F-25030 Besançon, France; bDepartment of Virology, CHRU Besancon, F-25030 Besancon, France; c Libanese University, Beyrouth, Lebanon.

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer-related death cause among women. It represents a heterogeneous disease where it has been categorized, based on the transcriptome profile, into at least five intrinsic subtypes. The vast majority of breast cancers are adenocarcinomas originating from cells that line the milk forming ducts of the mammary gland. There are many risk factors included in the development of breast cancer. Moreover, few viruses have been suspected to trigger either the initiation or the development of breast cancer. One of such viruses is the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) (Harkins2010). HCMV, a highly host specific betaherpesvirus that is considered, in the immunocompetent host, as an asymptomatic or mildly pathogenic virus. However, HCMV may lead to serious in utero infections, in addition to acute and chronic complications in immunocompromised individual. In vivo HCMV targets a variety of cell types, including epithelial cells, endothelial cells, stromal cells, smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts, hepatocytes, neuronal cells, and macrophages. After delivery, HCMV have been detected in the milk of women, therefore it could spread to the adjacent mammary epithelial cells. Macrophages are the most prevalent infiltrating cell type found in organs infected with HCMV. During viremia, circulating monocytes could be infected by the virus present in the blood. Upon their migration into breast tissue, and after their differentiation into macrophages they could transmit the virus to the surrounding mammary epithelial cells. Additionally, the HCMV infection of macrophages induces an atypical M1/M2 phenotype which is close to the tumor-associated macrophage (TAM) phenotype. We reported previously that some HCMV strains, such as the HCMV-DB strain (KT959235), are highly macrophage-tropic and can trigger a M2 phenotype with activation of the proto-oncogenic protein Bcl-3 (Khan 2009). The TAM phenotype is associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer. We will describe here a potential biological mechanism based on a critical role of macrophage and HCMV in the initiation and progression of breast cancer (Herbein & Kumar 2014).

References Harkins, L.E., Matlaf, L.A., Soroceanu, L., Klemm, K., Britt, W.J., Wang, W., Bland, K.I., Cobbs, C.S., 2010. Detection of human cytomegalovirus in normal and neoplastic breast epithelium. Herpesviridae 1, 8. Khan, K.A., Coaquette, A., Davrinche, C., Herbein, G., 2009. Bcl-3-regulated transcription from major immediate-early promoter of human cytomegalovirus in monocyte-derived macrophages. J. Immunol. 182, 7784-7794. Herbein, G., Kumar, A., 2014. The oncogenic potential of human cytomegalovirus and breast cancer. Front. Oncol. 4, 230.

Introduction: Background: Cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Cigarette smoking remains a global health epidemic with negative effects on the cardiovascular system. Aims: This study evaluate the effect of pomegranate supplementation on the cardiovascular system of an experimental rat model of smoke exposure.

Methods: Adult rats were divided into four different groups: Control, Cigarette smoking (CS), AO, and CS + AO. Cigarette smoke exposure was for 4 weeks and AO group received pomegranate juice while other groups received placebo. Assessment of cardiovascular injury was documented by assessing different parameters of cardiovascular injury mediators. Results: Cigarette smoke exposure induced cardiac hypertrophy, which was reduced upon administration of pomegranate in CS + AO group. Cigarette smoke exposure was associated with elevation in oxidative stress. In addition, an increase in aortic calcification was observed after 1 month of cigarette smoke exposure. Furthermore, cigarette smoke induced a significant up regulation in Bdkrb1 expression level. Finally, pomegranate supplementation exhibited cardiovascular protection assessed by the above findings in cigarette smoke exposed animals. Conclusion: Findings from this work showed that cigarette smoking exposure is associated with significant cardiovascular pathology in an animal model. Antioxidant supplementation attenuated indicators of atherosclerosis markers associated with cigarette smoke exposure.

Background: Several nutritional deficiencies are reported to contribute to the risk of depression. Low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level is considered a risk factor for several physical and neurological conditions. Notwithstanding, the role of vitamin D deficiency in the etiology of depression as well as its role in augmentation of depressive symptoms is inconclusive. Our study is the first to explore the relationship between vitamin D status and depressive symptoms' severity among community-based adult sample in Lebanon.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to find out whether vitamin D status associates with depressive symptoms' severity independent of sociodemographic, lifestyle, anthropometric, medical morbidity, stress and family history of mental illness.

Methods: A total of 351 employees at Notre Dame University (NDU) from the main and two regional campuses granted their voluntary consent to participate in the study. . Data was collected by way of face-to-face interview conducted by nutrition graduates during which 4 questionnaires were administered: a) food frequency questionnaire (for assessment of vitamin D intake from foods and supplements);b) background questionnaire (to collect data on socio-demographic and lifestyle factors, stressful life events, and medical history);c) International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) - short form; and d) Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), a 9-item depression scale used to assess severity of depressive symptoms. In addition, participants were invited to the Nutrition Lab for anthropometric measurements (body weight, height, waist circumference (WC), body composition) and blood sample withdrawal (for assessment of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels). The study protocol was approved by NDU Institutional Review Board.

Statistical analysis: Descriptive statistics for the total sample were performed. Quantitative and qualitative measurements were summarized as mean ± standard deviation and n (%), respectively. Comparisons of continuous and categorical variables was performed using independent 2-sample T Test (Mann-Whitney-U-test)/Analysis of variance (Kruskal Wallis Test) and the chi square test /Fisher's exact test, respectively. Spearman correlation coefficients were used to evaluate the association among the different variables. Statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 for Windows. A p-value less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: The sample consisted of 351 participants with a mean age of 42.36 ± 11.52 years (49% males). Of the respondents, 37.6% were overweight, 25.9% were obese and 50.7% had a risky waist circumference (> 102 cm in men, or > 88 cm in women as per the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Guidelines). More than half (53.3%) had 3 meals per day, and close to three quarters (76.9%) of participants reported daily breakfast consumption. In addition, 21.4% and 27.4% were taking vitamin D supplements or any other supplement in the past three months, respectively. As per Institute of Medicine (IOM) vitamin D status cut-off points, 12.1% emerged as vitamin D deficient (< 12 ng/ml), 26.6% insufficient (12-20 ng/ml), and 61.3% sufficient (≥ 20 ng/ml). Lower dietary vitamin D intake was found to be significantly associated with older age (≥ 49: 1.60 ± 1.55; ≤ 36: 2.82 ± 4.76, p=0.006), lower monthly income ($) (< 1,250: 1.17 ± 1.33; 1,250-2,250: 1.76 ± 1.67; 2,250-4,000: 2.38 ± 2.88 and > 4,000: 2.61 ± 4.04, p=0.002), and higher educational level (bachelor/ graduate: 2.19 ± 2.07 vs. high school: 2.36 ± 5.60). Using PHQ-9 depression scale, 71.4%, 23.2% and 5.4% of the participants in our sample were found to have no, mild and moderate to moderately-severe symptoms of depression, respectively. Higher total depressive symptoms' score was found to be significantly associated with younger age (≤ 36: 3.81 ± 3.22; 37-48: 3.38 ± 3.37: ≥ 49: 2.52 ± 2.49, p=0.008), female gender (F: 4.02 ± 3.41 vs. M: 2.46 ± 2.50, p=0.000), lower monthly income ($) (< 1,250: 5.18 ± 3.22 vs. 1,250-2,250: 3.01 ± 2.67; < 1,250: 5.18 ± 3.22 vs. 4,000-5,333: 3.09 ± 2.74; < 1,250: 5.18 ± 3.22 vs. > 5,333: 2.66 ± 3.03, p=0.003), underweight (underweight: 11.00 ± 4.20, normal: 3.64 ± 3.00, overweight: 2.78 ± 3.05, obese: 3.18 ± 2.99, p=0.006), family history of mental illness (yes: 6.15 ± 4.27 vs. no: 3.06 ± 2.91, p=0.001), higher number stressful life events during the past year (≥ 2: 4.22 ± 3.01; 1: 3.94 ± 3.56; 0: 2.74 ± 2.75, p=0.001). Further data analysis is underway to identify factors which may possibly associate with vitamin D status and to determine the relationship between vitamin D status and depressive symptoms' severity controlling for confounders.

Background: Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is the most common debilitating complication of diabetes affecting more than 50% of patients. It is associated with impaired nerve conduction, abnormal thermal perception, axonal atrophy, demyelination, blunted regenerative potential, and loss of nerve fibers. However, the exact mechanisms underlying such complications are still not known. Although reactive oxygen species have been established as the main pathway of cellular injury in diabetic neuropathy, the mechanisms by which they cause their effects need to be more elucidated

Aim: We will investigate the role of ROS generated by the NADPH oxidases family of enzymes in mediating biological responses in Schwann cells including phenotypic changes such as deregulation of myelin gene expression (P0 and PMP22) and apoptosis. We will study the role of ROS production in the alteration of the signaling pathways involving LXR and mTOR and the crosstalk among these pathways in the mediation of cell injury

Methods: Raised beam walking test was used to assess behavioral malfunction in diabetic animals. Dihydroethidium (DHE) and 2', 7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescin (DCF) diacetate were used for the detection of intracellular ROS in sciatic nerves and Schwann cells (MSC80) respectively, while NADPH oxidase activity assay helped in the specification of the source of ROS. RT-PCR allowed the measurement of mRNA levels of Nox3, Nox4, PMP22, P0, and LXR-β. Western blots were used to assess the protein expression levels of NADPH oxidases and myelin proteins as well as mTOR, P70S6K and LXR- β. DNA fragmentation/ELISA test was used to study apoptosis in Schwann cells

Results: Hyperglycemia causes motor defects at the level of the peripheral nerves and is associated with an alteration in P0 and PMP22 levels. NADPH oxidases levels and activity are increased and result in the production of ROS. High glucose induces the activation of mTOR/P70S6K suggested to play a role in Schwann cell injury. LXR expression is decreased which might contribute to ROS production. The final outcome of these variations combined is Schwann cell injury and apoptosis, which is reversed by T0901317 treatment

Conclusion: Our study indicates that hyperglycemia alters the normal functioning of Schwann cells through a multitude of mechanisms including increased ROS production, decreased LXR pathway activation and increased mTOR activation. Injury and apoptosis of Schwann cells result and lead to alterations in P0 and PMP22 levels. The final consequence is an abnormal motor behavior and defects in motor coordination

Background: Stroke, or cerebrovascular accident (CVA), is a common cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Risk factors for CVA are now well established, and validated tools, which predict risk of stroke, are included in clinical guidelines.1 However, even with respect to those well-established stroke risk factors, significant ambiguity persists about the strength of their association with stroke risk due to substantial differences between populations, including genes, cultural factors, environmental risk factors, and ethnicity. Despite stroke being the second leading cause of death in Lebanon, there is a scarcity of reliable information on stroke.2 However, the adjusted stroke prevalence in Lebanon was 0.50% (95% CI, 0.33-0.66) in 2012, and the rate of stroke mortality has reached 62.7/100,000 population in 2011, indicating that around 8 Lebanese people die every day due to stroke.3 Moreover, overweight and obesity rate has been associated with stroke in many large studies. In a national survey conducted in 2008-2009 on households from all Lebanese Governorates, the prevalence rate of obesity among Lebanese adults was estimated at 26.1%.4 Obesity was highly related to the diet of the Lebanese population where the mean percent energy consumption from fat exceeded the 30% limit recommended by the WHO and the intakes of carbohydrates and proteins were at lower limit of the recommended intake.4 Therefore, we aimed to conduct a hospital-based case-control study to determine the potential risk factors for stroke in the Lebanese population. The importance of determining the likelihood of stroke based on a specific risk profile is evidence that any modification of any potent risk factor will result in a reduction of stroke incidence in Lebanon. Moreover, we aimed to assess Lebanese people adherence to Mediterranean diet (MeD) and the risk of stroke in this population. Adherence to MeD has proved to be significantly associated with a reduced risk of stroke in many populations.5 Methods: A hospital-based case-control study was conducted with prospective data-collection at five different tertiary hospitals in Lebanon between January 1st, 2015 and December 31st, 2016. Cases were Lebanese patients, 18 years and older, admitted to hospitals and diagnosed with stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA). Controls were Lebanese patients, admitted to the same hospitals as cases with diagnosis other than stroke/TIA. All patients completed a standardized structured questionnaire. A logistic regression determined the association between stroke and many identified risk factors. Self-reported general diet adherence was assessed based on the total number of points a patient can have, varying from 0 to 14 points. Odds ratio expressed the strength of association between stroke and stroke risk factors and between stroke and adherence to MeD. Data was analysed using SPSS version 24. P<0.05 indicated statistical significance. Results: In total, 650 patients were enrolled in the present study with 205 stroke cases and 445 stroke-free controls. In multivariate logistic regression models, age (≥65 years old) was a major risk factor for stroke as well as a history of hypertension, coronary heart disease/myocardial infarction, deep venous thrombosis/pulmonary embolism, history of TIA/CVA, family history of TIA/CVA, cigarette smoking, and waterpipe smoking. Moreover, the risk of stroke significantly increased with the increase of blood pressure grade among patients. Having a grade 3 BP had the highest OR (43.881; 95% CI, 8.059-238.924). Being physically active was significantly associated with reduced risk of stroke OR (0.449; 95% CI, 0.231-0.871). The MeD was dichotomized using a median split [2-6 vs 7-11]. Around 188 (28.8%) patients had a low-adherence to the MeD and 462 (71.2%) patients had a high adherence to the MeD. High adherence to MeD was associated with lower likelihood of incident stroke in unadjusted logistic regression models (model I), and after adjusting for age and sex (model II), socio-economic and demographic factors (model III), and vascular risk factors, behavioral factors, and medications (model IV). More precisely, after adjusting for all potential confounders, high adherence to MeD was associated with a decreased risk of stroke (OR, 0.088; 95% CI, 0.0043-0.179; p=0.000). However, this association depended also on other stroke risk factors. Conclusion: Advanced age, cigarette and waterpipe smoking and the presence of a history of hypertension, coronary heart disease/myocardial infarction, deep venous thrombosis/pulmonary embolism, history of TIA/CVA and family history of TIA/CVA are associated with increased odds of a risk of stroke among the Lebanese population. Lebanese diet, bad eating habits, and lack of physical activity are alarming especially that the prevalence of obesity in Lebanon has exceeded the reported worldwide estimates. High-adherence to MeD has shown to be associated with reduced risk of stroke among the Lebanese population. We recommend to implement preventive strategies to reduce the risk and incidence of stroke among Lebanese people. References: 1. Andrade SE, Harrold LR, Tjia J, Cutrona SL, Saczynski JS, Dodd KS, et al. A systematic review of validated methods for identifying cerebrovascular accident or transient ischemic attack using administrative data. Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety. 2012;21(S1):100-128. 2. Lahoud N, Salameh P, Saleh N, Hosseini H. Prevalence of Lebanese stroke survivors: A comparative pilot study. Journal of epidemiology and global health. 2016;6(3):169-176. 3. World Health Organization. World Health Rankings: Live Longer Live Better [Internet]. World Health Organization; 2011 [cited 2015 Sep 11]. Available from: http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/stroke/by-country/ 4. Chamieh MC, Moore HJ, Summerbell C, Tamim H, Sibai AM, Hwalla N. Diet, physical activity and socio-economic disparities of obesity in Lebanese adults: findings from a national study. BMC public health. 2015;15(1):279. 5. Kontogianni MD, Panagiotakos DB. Dietary patterns and stroke: a systematic review and re-meta-analysis. Maturitas. 2014;79(1):41-47.

Introduction Hospitals are a threatening environment because of a variable number of virulent pathogens that are brought to it from the community through admitted patients. The prevalence of hospital acquired infections is generally higher in developing countries of limited resources, leading to adverse healthcare outcomes.Gram-negative bacteria are largely responsible for acquired infections. Multi-drug resistant strains are increasingly isolated in these settings, including Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamases (ESBL), carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Gram negative bacteria develop resistance by carrying genes coding for enzymes, such as beta-lactamases. Based on this, community-onset ESBL infections have become an important public health issue. Furthermore, Staphylococcus aureus gram-positive cocci, are the most common hospital acquired pathogens with increased morbidity. Methicillin, a β-lactamase-resistant derivative of penicillin, subdivides the species into sensitive and resistant subgroups. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) appeared in 1961, one year after methicillin was introduced into clinical use. To our knowledge, no study has ever identified characteristics of bacteria comparing community and hospital settings in Lebanon.These bacteria are generally resistant to antibiotics, owing to the heavy use of wide spectrum antibiotics in hospital settings inducing difficult to treat infections. This multicenter study was designed to identify and characterize the species of different pathogens between community acquired and hospital acquired infections, pointing on patients' related independent co-morbidities and socio-demographic factors. Materials and methods Study design: This was a retrospective cohort, multicenter study from five private hospitals located in Beirut and Mount Lebanon over one year. The Lebanese University ethical committee waived approval of the study since it is an observational non-invasive study that respects participants' autonomy and anonymity. Population and data collection:Overall, 258 adult patients were included. Data were collected through a standardized sheet of patient identification. The record included patient-specific parameters such as demographic data, underlying diseases and risk factors. The infection variables recorded positive culture, type of germs and antibiotic treatment with presence or absence of multi-resistant bacteria. Hospital acquired infections was defined as a localized or systemic condition that resulted from an adverse reaction due to the presence of infectious agents which occurred 48 hours or more after hospital admission and was not incubating at the time of admission. Community acquired infections were defined as an infection detected within 48 hours of hospital admitted patients. Microbiology data: Data collected were primarily qualitative (resistant, intermediate or susceptible). Data analysis: Statistical evaluation was conducted through bivariate and multivariable risk factor analyses, with the aim of identifying selected bacteria and independent factors associated with the presence of a hospital acquired infection compared to patients with a community acquired infection. Data was entered and analyzed, using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 software. In all analysis, a p-value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results Population: Among the patients included in this study, 142 (55%) had hospital acquired infection and 116 (45%) community acquired. Around 73% of patients had more than one severity criterion and 50.8% had sepsis diagnosis at 48hrs or more after hospital admission. The mean ICU length of stay was around 8 days. Eighteen point two from these patients died. The total mortality at hospital discharge was 27.1%. Most common organisms' isolated implicated in hospital acquired infections: The bacteria that showed a positive correlation regarding patient's type of infection were Pseudomonas aeruginosa (19% vs 6.3%) (p=0.002), Klebsiella pneumoniae (10.3% vs 2.8%) (p =0.013) and Acinetobacter baumannii (6% vs 0.7%) (p=0.017), MRSA (12.9% vs 2.8%)(p=0.001) and ESBL producing Escherichia coli (30.2% vs 1.7%) (p=0.001). Factors associated with hospital acquired infections: Regarding relationship between the type of infections and socio-demographic profile, patients with hospital acquired infection were older than those of the community acquired infected patients (p=0.003); age was categorized in two subgroups less than 44 years and more than 44 years according to the criteria of Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) score;Regarding comorbidities, patients with hospital acquired infection had higher prevalence of hematologic malignancy (12.1% vs 4.9% p=0.037), immunosuppression (24.1% vs 10.6% p=0.004), prior administration of steroids (15.5% vs 7.7% p=0.049) and chemotherapy (7.8% vs 1.4%). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was predominant in community patients (16.4% vs 30.3% p=0.009). The predictive factors of hospital acquired infection were older age group (ORa = 5.680; CI [2.344 ; 13.765] p<0.001) and immune-suppressed state (ORa = 3.137; CI [1.485 ; 6.630] p=0.003 ), while there was an inverse relationship for COPD (ORa = 0.403 CI [0.212;0.765] p=0.006) (more common among community acquired infections). Conclusion Our results confirm that hospital acquired infections have higher rates of resistant bacteria when compared to community acquired infections. Microbiologists have to play an important role in the prevention of hospital acquired infections because they are the first to detect the patients' bacteriological flora and their pattern of resistance. Physicians should also be aware of patients' comorbidities to properly guide the initial therapy, particularly age, immuno-suppression and COPD; since resistance is attributed to local epidemiology and uncontrolled use of antimicrobial agents, further research involving a large number of patients from different hospitals are needed in order to confirm our findings and highlight the need of antimicrobial stewardship.

Hypoxia occurs in solid tumors as a result of an inadequate supply of oxygen, due to exponential cellular proliferation. Under these circumstances, hypoxic cells may undergo a series of coordinated responses in order to maintain their viability and metabolic activity.

It has been previously reported that the exposure to severe hypoxia leads to the accumulation of p53, which in turn leads to rapid apoptosis. Some genotoxic stresses are able to induce p53-dependent ceramide accumulation leading to cell death. However, in other cases, in the absence of the tumor suppressor protein p53, apoptosis proceeds partly due to the activity of this "tumor suppressor lipid", ceramide.

Ceramide is a family of highly hydrophobic lipids that contain a variable length fatty acid linked to sphingosine or a related long chain base. In addition to its structural role in the metabolism of membrane building blocks such as sphingomyelin, ceramide plays a critical role in trans-membrane signaling, particularly in response to stress challenges. Hence, ceramide participates in regulating differentiation, proliferation, and programmed cell death of cells.

The aim of this project is to elucidate the pathway involving p53 and ceramide in the response of solid cancers to hypoxia, in order to elaborate novel therapeutic strategies for p53-mutated solid tumors.

Our preliminary results showed that exposure of HCT 116 p53+/+ colon cancer cells to hypoxia induced G2/M arrest accompanied by p53 overexpression and early ceramide accumulation. However in the absence of p53, HCT 116 cells were unable to arrest efficiently in G2/M, and ceramide accumulation occurred at later time points.

Understanding the pathway involving p53 and ceramide in the response of cancer cells to hypoxia is crucial for the development of novel therapeutic strategies for p53-mutated solid tumors.

Objectives: Vascular graft failure is one of the most common finding in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and still remains the major problem after surgery. The aim of the present study was to investigate features of pathomorphological changes in different type of grafts after CABG in patients with isolated coronary artery disease and associated with hypertensive disease. Material and Methods: Histopathological study was performed on 207 fragments of autopsy sections of autoarterial and autovenous grafts using light microscopy. Results: It is shown that the condition of the vascular wall is depend on hemodynamics leading to degenerative changes of the graft as a result of destructive and proliferative processes in the intima and the middle layer. Active replacement of smooth muscle cells of the media by fibrous tissue and then connective tissues leads to thickness of the vascular wall, stenosis on one hand and on the other hand development of unstable atheromatous plaques. Conclusions: Morphological changes of the venous grafts in patients how undergone CABG and had died after surgery from coronary heart disease associated with hypertensive heart disease were more acute with more aggressive course of atherosclerotic changes with diffuse proliferation of processes and formation of unstable plaques.

Background and Aims: Cardiovascular disease is considered a major cause of death in the diabetic population. Detrimental effects of hyperglycemia are well demonstrated especially those related to vascular damages. Moreover, many recent studies have highlighted the association between vascular complications in diabetes and two adipocytokines: leptin and adiponectin (APN). APN exerts protective effects on vascular remodeling while leptin promotes this phenomenon. The aim of our study was to investigate the molecular mechanisms responsible for hyperglycemia-associated vascular disorders, mediated by APN and leptin synthesis in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Methods and Results: Rat aorta organ culture was used to investigate the effect of hyperglycemia on APN and leptin protein expression in VSMCs and the potential involvement of the RhoA/ROCK pathway and caveolae in this expression. Moreover, the impacts of hyperglycemia on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and changes in actin cytoskeleton dynamics, in VSMCs, were investigated. Western blotting and Immunohistochemistry revealed that 24 hours of exposure to hyperglycemia leads to an increase in APN endogenous protein synthesis in VSMCs, which was prevented by 1 hour pretreatment with the ROCK inhibitor Y-27632 and the cholesterol depleting agent methyl ß-cyclodextrin MβCD. However, the increase in APN synthesis fails to provide vascular protection because of the decrease in APN receptors AdipoR1 and AdipoR2 mRNA expression. In addition, hyperglycemia induces endogenous leptin protein synthesis in VSMCs at early stage (1 hour) through RhoA/ROCK pathway and caveolae, and at late stage (24 hours). Moreover, results showed that 1 hour of hyperglycemia significantly upregulated ROS formation which was potently attenuated by 1 hour pre-treatment with Y-27632 and leptin antibody. However, the 1 hour of pre-treatment with APN slightly reduced hyperglycemia-induced ROS production while the disruption of caveolar structures by MβCD significantly increased this production. In addition, the effect of hyperglycemia on NADPH oxidase4 (Nox4) protein expression in VSMCs was assessed by western blot. Results revealed a significant increase in Nox4 protein expression after 24 hours of exposure to hyperglycemia. In order to investigate the association between Nox activity and APN synthesis; aortas were pre-treated for 1 hour with the Nox inhibitor apocynin then incubated for 24 hours in high glucose conditions. This treatment significantly decreased hyperglycemia-induced APN expression in VSMCs. In addition, the effect of hyperglycemia on actin cytoskeleton remodeling was also investigated. Hyperglycemia for 24 hours induced a significant decrease in the Globular/Filamentous-actin ratio in VSMCs. Pretreating aortas with y-27632 and anti-leptin antibody Ob(Y-20) significantly inhibited the polymerization of globular actin into filamentous actin but no inhibition was detected following the pretreatment with APN. Moreover, Q-PCR revealed that 24 hours of exposure to hyperglycemia significantly increased Cyclophilin A mRNA expression. Finally, pretreating aortas with MβCD didn't inhibit hyperglycemia-induced actin cytoskeleton remodeling but the inhibition of Cyp-A by cyclosporin A prevent this mechanism. Conclusion: Taken together, our data prove that hyperglycemia induces endogenous APN and leptin synthesis in VSMCs through RhoA/ROCK pathway and caveolae. Hyperglycemia also leads to the development of oxidative stress and induces actin cytoskeleton remodeling, favoring vascular remodeling.

Angelo Leone1, Alessandro Gulino2, Beatrice Belmonte2,Alice George1, Geagea, Walter Arancio2, Claudio Tripodo2 and Isabelle Miletich3

1)BioNec, Section of Histology, Palermo University School of Medicine, Palermo, Italy 2) Tumour Immunology Unit, Human Pathology Section, Department of Health Science, Palermo University School of Medicine, Palermo, Italy 3) Craniofacial Development, Tower Wing, Guy's Hospital King's College, London, UK

The natriuretic peptide system comprises of three ligands - atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) - and three receptors, NPR-A, NPR-B and NPR-C. Although the heart is the major source of ANP and BNP, production of ANP has been reported in a number of extra cardiac sites including the salivary glands (SGs). Our immunohistochemical studies show all members of the atrial natriuretic system are present in human adult sub-mandibular SGs in three anatomical locations: the excretory ducts, the blood vessel walls and the peripheral nervous system. It is the first time the natriuretic peptide system is shown to be expressed in the peripheral nervous system. We show this pattern of expression is conserved between mice and humans, which suggests an important role for this system in SG function, possibly as a neurotransmitter or neuromodulator during SG homeostasis. We further identified NPRA expression was elevated in the salivary gland stroma of a number of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), while NPRA expression was downregulated in SG advanced primary OSCC, suggesting high NPRA levels could be used to diagnose early stages of malignancies in SGs.

Introduction The impact of antimicrobial resistance on patients' clinical outcomes is the subject of ongoing investigation. This data can be used to influence physicians to make rational choices in regards to the use of antimicrobial agents. In regards to outcomes, morbidity may be the most sensitive measure to quantify the impact of antimicrobial resistance, added to patient's mortality. Moreover, the inability to properly control the severity of the underlying illness may lead to the observed differences in outcomes. Overall, in the Middle East and in Lebanon especially, data related to antimicrobial resistance are scarce. Due to the availability of antibiotics in community pharmacies without physician prescription, our country will witness an increase in the resistance of a number of bacterial infections to common antimicrobial agents. Regarding treatment, some factors like decreased effectiveness, increased toxicity, and improper dosing of antimicrobial agents may contribute to adverse outcomes in patients infected with a resistant pathogen. Thus, the prescription of antimicrobial agents should follow priorities such as the presence of comorbidities and resistance patterns of in-hospital microorganisms. Due to the high frequency of multi-resistant organisms, new protocols for the empirical treatment of infections were implemented, consisting of the use of carbapenems combined or not with a glycopeptide in nosocomial infections and third-generation cephalosporins as the empirical therapy for community-acquired infections. The aims of this study were primarily to determine the patients' risk factors of resistance in accordance to the type of infections acquired and to examine the possible resistant infections. Materials and methods Study design: This was a retrospective multicenter study from five private hospitals. Patients are classified according to the type of bacteria acquired whether sensitive or resistant. Note that intermediate bacteria were classified as resistant. All these hospitals serve adult patients, have medical and surgical intensive care units, internal medicine ward and emergency room. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board committee of the five hospitals included in the study. Definition of multiresistant organisms: Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus was defined as resistance to Beta lactam compounds that are not hydrolyzed by Beta lactamase such as oxacillin, dicloxacillin and flucloxacillin. For multiresistant Gram negative pathogens, they were considered Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamase (ESBL) positive if they belonged to the enterobacteriaceae family and were resistant to more than one third generation cephalosporin or aztreonam. Non-fermenting Gram negative bacteria among them Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii display acquired mechanism of resistance to penicillins, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides and fluoroquinolones. Microbiology data: The primary endpoint examined was drug multi resistance. All participating medical centers were responsible for isolates identification and susceptibility testing. Each laboratory performed susceptibility testing according to their own standardized techniques based on current National Committee for Clinical Laboratory standards. Data analysis: Statistical evaluation was conducted through bivariate and multivariable risk factor analyses, with the aim of identifying selected risk factors or comorbidities associated with the presence of resistant bacteria as the dependent variable. Stratification was also performed according to the hospital versus community acquired infection. Data was entered and analysed, using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 software. Results Of the 258 patients, 174 (67.4%) were infected with sensitive bacteria to their usual antibiotics and 84 (32.6%) had resistant bacteria. There was a highly significant relationship of E-coli ESBL (p<0.001), Pseudomonas aeruginosa resistant Imipenem, aminoglygosides, fluoroquinolones and B lactam other than imipenem (p<0.001), Klebsiella pneumoniae ESBL (p=0.034), Acinetobacter baumanii (p=0.009).Moreover, a highly resistant Staphylococcus resistant to methicillin was also noticed (p<0.001). Predictors of infection with bacterial resistance: Older patients with hospital acquired infections had significant correlations with bacterial resistance. As comorbidities, these patients were significantly more likely to have immunosuppression (48.8% vs 29.3% p=0.013), had been under steroids therapy (51.7% vs 30.1% p=0.019) and severe malnutrition according to BMI classification (66.7% vs 31.3% p=0.026). Patients aged above 44 years and had been under steroids therapy had 3 times risk of developing bacterial resistance (ORa age = 2.603; CI [1.060; 6.390]) and (ORa steroids = 2.968; CI [1.319; 6.676]), and patients with severe malnutrition had almost 6 times the risk of developing bacterial resistance (ORa = 5.681; CI [1.329; 24.286]) Predictors of bacterial resistance among patients with hospital and community acquired infections: Among patients who had hospital acquired infections, 62(53.4%) had sensitive bacteria and 54(46.6%) had resistant bacteria. The comorbidity that had a significant relationship with resistance was the presence of diabetes mellitus (71.4% vs 35.8%p<0.001). Regarding patients with community acquired infections, 112(78.9%) had sensitive bacteria and 30(21.1%) had resistant bacteria. The comorbidities that had a significant relationship with resistance were an immunocompromised state (40% vs 18.9% p=0.058) and prior administration of steroids (64.65% vs 18.3% p=0.005). Diabetic patients having hospital acquired infections had around 5 times risk of developing multiresistance (ORa = 4.58; CI [1.887; 11.202]) whereas, patients with prior administration of steroids with community acquired infections had almost 7 times risk of acquiring mutiresistance (ORa = 6.783; CI [1.770; 25.990]). Conclusion: Our study is a pilot study that highlights predictive variables associated with antimicrobial resistance; therefore, clinicians should identify patients at risk of bacterial resistance from the onset of infection. The model we developed took into consideration both the type of comorbidities and risk factors and the interaction among them. On one hand, an invasive microbiological treatment is indicated for patients with high risk, but on the other hand, the administration of empirical antibiotic therapy is needed to minimize the unnecessary use of large spectrum of antibiotics for low-risk patients.

Dans plusieurs milieux de travail, les travailleurs maintiennent, d'une façon statique, une posture pendant de longues durées continues ou intermittentes, ce qui peut être à l'origine de différents symptômes et malaises. Le pied est souvent l'origine de la diffusion des efforts sur la chaîne articulaire. Son comportement au sol, par le biais de ses appuis, conditionne les trajectoires des entités segmentaires en aval.

Dans le but de démontrer l'efficacité du port d'une cale pour améliorer les lombalgies secondaires à la position debout prolongée en milieu professionnel, une étude a été menée sur un échantillon de 30 bar tenders, âgés entre 20 et 30 ans et ayant une lombalgie datant deplus de 3 mois. Le premier groupe a subi pendant 3 semaines une série d'exercices d'assouplissement et d'étirement musculaire effectués avant le travail et le second a mis une cale sous la plante des pieds en légère flexion dorsale de 5 cm durant le travail. Le bilan articulaire, la mesure des rétractions musculaires et la douleur ont été mesurés au début des 1ère, 3ème et 9ème séances de physiothérapie.

Les résultats, à la 9ème séance, montrent une amélioration des mouvements lombaires et des rétractions musculaires dans les 2 groupes et cette amélioration est plus marquée dans le groupe portant une cale. La douleur selon EVA a diminué de presque 40% chez les 2 groupes. Une satisfaction des bar tenders est notée surtout chez ceux portant une cale. En conclusion, l'utilisation d'une cale comme adjuvant au traitement de physiothérapie pourrait accélérer le rythme d'amélioration des lombalgies chez les bar tenders.

Introduction: NADPH oxidase (NOX) enzymes are a family of heme-containing transmembrane proteins whose basic function is reactive oxygen species (ROS) production [1]. In fact, Diabetes has been shown to increase the generation of ROS [2] and NOX-generated ROS have been linked to injury to various organs including the colon [3]. Our main aim is to explore the mechanism by which diabetes-induced ROS accelerate tumor development and tumor burden. Methods: 2 month old male C57BL/6-APC mice that spontaneously develop colorectal polyps were divided into four groups; (A) a non-diabetic, (B) STZ-induced diabetes, (C) diabetic group treated with Metformin; AMPK activator, and a (D) diabetic group treated with Rapamycin (mTORC1 inhibitor). After 5 weeks, the number and size of the polyps were assessed in comparison with the APC control mice. Western Blots were performed to assess the protein expression of Nox1, Laminin, and p-mTOR. NADPH oxidase enzymatic activity was also assessed using the NADPH oxidase activity assay. Results: APC mice exhibited an average of 4 polyps per mouse with an average diameter of 0.5 mm. However, APC diabetic mice developed almost double the number of polyps with approximately the same average diameter. Polyp numbers in animals treated with metformin and rapamycin were similar to those of the controls. Western Blots showed increased Laminin, p-mTOR, and Nox1 levels for APC diabetic mice compared to the control mice and for C57 diabetic mice compared to the C57 control mice. Treatments with metformin and rapamycin attenuated those levels. In addition NADPH oxidase activity was shown to increase in diabetic mice and decrease again in the treated mice. Conclusion: These results reveal a novel mechanistic pathway involved in the progression of colorectal cancer during the onset and development of diabetes.

Introduction/Background: Vitamin D (VitD) is one of the most widely tested and supplemented vitamins, due to the high prevalence of deficiency worldwide and the increasing literature on related complications. The absence of clear guidelines has increased confusion among physicians regarding the screening and treatment of VitD deficiency.

Objective/Methods: This observational cross-sectional study evaluated the knowledge and practice of VitD measurement and supplementation among physicians in North Lebanon. A convenience sample of physicians, working at hospitals and private clinics in North Lebanon, was recruited during February and March 2016. Data was collected from a face-to-face interview performed by a trained local dietitian. A total of 270 physicians (231 men and 39 women) were included in the analysis. Informed consent form was signed by all physicians prior to participation. The study protocol was approved by Notre Dame University-Louaize Research Board.

Results: The knowledge and practice were very diverse among physicians. Only 23 (8.5%) were able to identify good nutritional sources of VitD. Fifty one (18.9%) physicians never measure VitD and 107 (39.6%) measure it in all patients. Moreover, 265 (98.1%) physicians do not recommend any specific method of testing and 253 (93.7%) rely on the different cut-off levels of VitD set by the laboratories. Respectively, 162 (60%) and 174 (64.4%) ignore the approximate cost of the test and supplementation. Additionally, 28 (10.4%) physicians prescribe VitD supplements without diagnostic testing and 254 (94.1%) consider that VitD supplementation does not have any side effects. Finally, 243 (90%) believe that physicians are over-prescribing VitD supplements.

Conclusions: Confusion among physicians regarding when and how to diagnose and treat VitD deficiency is apparent. Local and international guidelines are urgently needed to regulate VitD testing and supplementation.

Introduction: Psychological distress, psychosomatic complaints and clinical mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are highly prevalent among refugees than other populations. The Syrian conflict has generated a large flow of refugees, more than one million of them located in Lebanon. Very few studies were conducted on mental health of Syrian refugees.

Objective: The aim of this study was to estimate the proportion of Syrian refugees living in North Lebanon who are at high risk of developing PTSD and to examine the association of PTSD high risk with socio-demographic and health-related factors.

Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted on a random sample of 450 (84.7% women and 15.3% men) Syrian refugees aged between 14 and 45 years, living in North Lebanon. Each participant was interviewed individually and the PTSD symptoms were determined using the Primary Care PTSD (PC-PTSD) screen, translated into Arabic, with a back-translation to the original language to verify accuracy. Reporting three or more PTSD symptoms was defined as a positive screen. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses were used to examine the prevalence of a positive PTSD screen and the associations with socio-demographic and health-related characteristics.

Results: The prevalence of positive PC-PTSD screen in our sample of Syrian refugees was 47.3%. There were statistically significant associations between a positive PTSD screen and being a woman (P=0.011), married (P<0.001), older than 18 years (P=0.006), having chronic medical conditions (P<0.001) and reporting more than 2 stressful life events (P<0.001).

Conclusion: The results of this survey are alarming, with high proportions of refugees at risk for PTSD. Early screening may help identify individuals who would benefit from interventions to improve mental health.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive neurological illness. Based on patient's symptoms, clinicians estimate qualitatively the presence and severity of this disease. Accordingly, it is highly important to find a diagnostic test that could identify patients who are potentially attained with PD. Thus, the main objective of our study is to motivate the development of such test through the analysis of vertical ground reaction force (VGRF) signals recorded from healthy control subjects as well as subjects attained with PD. Moreover, we aim to classify between Hoehn and Yahr stages through VGRF signal study and features extraction techniques. This process is done by extracting various significant features from sensors located at 16 different positions on the right and left foot. The T-test and Receiver Operating Characteristics Curve techniques were used to evaluate how well the extracted features can separate between control and PD subjects, and between PD subjects of different Hoehn and Yahr stages. Moreover, the discrete wavelet transform, a technique that is rarely used in this domain of study, was proposed so we can obtain supplementary features from the time-frequency representation. As results, the T-test outcome has shown that the mean, standard deviation and power extracted from three specific sensors of both feet could be highly significant for classification. Additionally, ROC curve results indicated that the power exerted on sensor number 1 decreases while PD progresses. Finally, the selection methods used to identify the appropriate mother wavelet highlight the importance of 'Sym1', 'Db1' and 'rbio1.1' in VGRF signal analysis.

Nowadays, urban areas represent a concentration of people in which each individually have their own activities and needs. The continuous increase in the demand of services urges the need for new designs and strategies in order to maintain community's economical, sustainable and reliable environment. The digital era has provided many tools to improve our methods of data analysis and manipulation, but even with automation, the complexity and scale of the systems that may be reached, can make things hard to plan. Theoretically, many of the available technologies can be very efficient in drawing the future plans for cyber cities by providing real-time automation services, but when actually applied, the response of the crowd to the new system is the main factor that affects the success or failure of the whole system. Therefore the mood of the community must be integrated in any plan, taking into consideration the increasing change in humans' culture that is getting harder to satisfy with all this smart technology used. The concept of smart cities is today a combined practice that involves urban researchers and the public crowd which together can shape the future of any public service. New perspectives of technological and economical innovations must include the behavior of the communities and its daily needs in order to deliver plans that fit with actual life. The radial routing procedure is proposed to provide a fast scheme manipulation of a public transport system on a geographic location, which relies directly on the history of daily trips of citizens associated with their geographic location retrieved from anonymous data provided by mobile operators. The idea behind this procedure is to provide a tool that automatically generates a public transport network by retrieving the point of attraction of a city from GIS maps that holds geographic databases of all important locations in a specific city. When all the points are located the system starts to analyze the movement of the citizens based on their GSM devices location in this geographic area, and cover all possible required trips to generate a final schedule plan of the Advanced Public Transport System (APTS) being studied. The procedure allows flexible parameters modification to include or exclude categories of points of attraction in the cities, the user is free to define the categories of the location in the database to be noticed when the system starts to search the city for nodes, for example one could include governmental and educational places and exclude shopping malls in the plans if shopping is prioritized as a secondary activity. Other parameters are used to define the radial distance needed to locate nodes, while the system is performing its circular search for main nodes of the system, the radial space will automatically set the distance between adjacent nodes. On the other hand, land values and citizens preferences ratios are defined to impact the sensitivity of the GSM data analyzed. In wealthy neighbors, it's most likely that citizens will use their own cars while other locations in the city may depend more on the public transport sector. However, urban communities behavior vary during different periods of the year, for example in winter its is more likely that education and business locations are more visited than in summer, so taking into consideration the seasonal change of the trips is a very delicate matter. All those aspects will provide a smart tool simple to define and fast to deliver the required network maps. The following Fig. 1 demonstrates the clustering process that scans attraction points in each sector. The simplicity provided by the procedure used allows the system to cover more area in the analysis without affecting the complexity of the process. Even cities' interconnected networks can be analyzed and planned using the same protocol, since this method is applicable on any map scale and its data is always available from the mobile operators covering most inhabited areas around the globe. Moreover the procedure is independent of the type of vehicles or the transportation means; it is suitable in land, sea and air transport networks and can be set to analyze any humans or products movement records. Such tool can provide fast schedule trip plans at any transit layer.

Cet article étudie l'impact des interfaces, une table de commande (figure 1), qui permet efficacement et intuitivement à un robot [1] commandé via Bluetooth (figure 2), de guider son chemin et de manipuler l'arme menée à ce dernier. Par la détection de la couleur rouge d'un laser dirigé vers la table de commande, permet la précision des différentes directions du robot et la simple touche du doigt contrôle les mouvements de l'arme.

Heated hard water forms a scale of Calcium and Bicarbonate that contributes to the inefficient operation or failure of water-using appliances and costs thousands of dollars in corrective maintenance. This work attempts to design a multi-frequency device that may prevent scale formation in pipes and heating elements by producing a magnetic field and studying its effects on the concentration of water components (Calcium, Bicarbonate, Magnesium among others…).

A new approach of power factor correction technique is reclaimed in this paper. In power systems, the power factor correction usually consists of branching capacitive loads to the power line in order to reduce the reactive power generated from inductive loads. The determination of the capacitance value depends on different parameters such as the voltage, current, frequency and the phase angle between the voltage and current. Thus, lots of measurements and calculations are required to branch the best capacitor value and reduce the power loss. The majority of industrial correctors use trial and error techniques or are limited to few steps of power correction. The system proposed in this paper uses a simple algorithm with fewer mathematical operations to determine the best capacitance value which can be selected among 256 different choices. The system engages the required capacitance in one shot in order to expand the lifetime of the switching relays and capacitors.

With the continuous increase in energy demand, the integration of renewable energy systems into the utility grid is gaining more and more interest. In particular, solar energy systems are gaining interest not only due to their environment friendly impact and free nature but also since they are more efficient and due to the abundant availability of solar energy. The objective of this work is to design a DC/DC buck converter suitable for use in PV power systems and to realize a simple interface that allows efficient utilization of electric power from solar panels. The work presented is divided into two parts: a literature review of PV power systems and power converters used in these systems. The second part involves modeling, design and control of the buck converter. This is achieved through the following design steps: • PV cell/module/array modeling, • MPPT algorithm implementation, • Design and control of DC/DC buck converter responsible for MPPT, The efficiency of the design is tested via simulation and experimental results.

L'idée de cet article est de transmettre des données entre deux entités d'une manière sécurisée en générant un algorithme de cryptage DTT (Data, Time, Température) liant par des facteurs réels: Temps et Température

This study intends to review the waveform design of 4G (based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM) and motivates the need for a new design for 5G. The advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) and other services are rendering OFDM unfeasible since it doesn't provide a strict synchronization. With filter bank based multicarrier (FBMC) a potential contender has been promoted in recent years. Though FBMC is better suited than OFDM in theory, practical considerations pinpoint many issues of FBMC. Thus, the Universal Filtered Multi-Carrier (UFMC); a filtering operation applied to a group of consecutive subcarriers, appears to combine the simplicity of OFDM with the advantages of FBMC. Therefore, it focuses on the UFMC as a new waveform contender for 5G in order to reduce out-of-band side lobe levels and subsequently minimize the potential ICI (Inter Carrier Interference) between adjacent users in case of asynchronous transmissions. We also prove by simulation the potential of UFMC compared to OFDM and FBMC.

Taking into consideration the hazardous consequences that can result from the entry of a student to a lab without the presence of an instructor or an assistant; or even from entering to the wrong lab at a wrong time. The presence of a fingerprint scanner for authenticating student access to classes is a must. The aim of this project is to build a fingerprint scanner authenticating system which controls the access of students to their classes at a pre-determined time. This is achieved with the use of a fingerprint reader linked with a database to assure that the student is registered and is on time.

The need to be identified with our environment, to locate ourselves within it, and to discover our place or position in relation to our surroundings, is more and more increasing. Indoor localization is necessary in many occasions, like the navigation in big facilities (malls, airports, museums, universities, conference halls, hospitals, etc.), as well as for security reasons (tracking and localizing dangerous persons indoor, firefighting and disaster recovery work in hazardous environments, etc.). The ability to locate objects and people indoors is still a major challenge in terms of performance. This work proposes the use of radio measurements dataset made from RSS - Radio Signal Strength - Wi-Fi Access Points (AP) fingerprints in an indoor environment of the MUT university. This dataset, applied to a tailor made fingerprinting algorithm, programmed in Android mobile application relying on Wi-Fi will optimize the desired location of an object or a person in indoor premises.

Biofilms are surface-attached bacteria embedded in a self-produced matrix of polysaccharides, proteins and nucleic acids. In marine environment biofilms, and subsequent colonization by algae or other organisms (micro or macro fouling), cause economic and environmental drawbacks for marine industries such as decreasing hydrodynamic efficiency of ships or affecting equipment function. Understanding how marine bacteria adhere and form biofilms on the surface of certain materials is crucial to develop new coatings with targeted anti-biofilm properties. In many bacteria, biofilm formation is regulated by c-di-GMP (cyclic-di-guanosine monophosphate). C-di-GMP is a ubiquitous second messenger in bacteria, where it affects the transition between a motile planktonic lifestyle and an adhesive biofilm lifestyle. High intracellular c-di-GMP is usually associated with biofilm production. C-di-GMP is synthesized by diguanylate cyclases (DGC), degraded by phosphodiesterases (PDE). We constructed a Tn-insertion library in S. oneidensis. We tested different mating conditions to build the library. We also constructed S. oneidensis strains with low or high concentrations of c-di-GMP as well as a strain deleted of flrA. FlrA is homologous to FleQ, a key c-di-GMP transcriptional regulator of biofilm formation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We obtained a transposon mutant library to study biofilm and pellicle formation in S. oneidensis. The flrA mutant is affected in motility and biofilm formation. As shown by others, c-di-GMP affects biofilm formation in S. oneidensis. We expect, using RNA-seq and Tn-seq experiments, to find new candidates for biofilm inhibition. Because of the widespread conservation of c-di-GMP signaling in bacteria and the absence of encoded associated enzymes in eukaryotic organisms, inhibition of this pathway offers an attractive approach to interfere with biofilm formation.

Grapevine trunk diseases (GTD) are currently considered one of the most relevant challenges for the viticulture and the most destructive diseases of grapevine for the past three decades (Fontaine et al., 2016). Esca disease complex, Eutypa dieback, Black dead arm, and Phomopsis cane and leaf spot are the leading players of these diseases; their life cycle and epidemiology are similar for all the known fungi. These diseases are cryptic and their symptoms usually take several years to develop. Fruiting bodies are produced in dead wood and their spores are released in the presence of water, dispersed by wind, and infect fresh new wounds. The general symptoms express themselves at the wood level through sectorial or central necrosis, and at the foliar level by sudden or chronic discoloration and drying. In Lebanon, particularly in Akkar area, table grapes had suffered recently from severe vine decline symptoms; recent surveys demonstrated that among the grapevine trunk pathogens, the incidence of Botryosphaeriaceae fungi was the highest (33.3%), followed by Fomitiporia sp. and Phaeomoniella chlamydospora (Habib et al., 2014). The most effective chemical product for the trunk diseases was sodium arsenate which has been prohibited, beginning in 2000, because of its toxicity both to environment and humans, nevertheless, preventive measures remain the only means to control these diseases. Pruning of grapevines opens a window for infection by wood inhabiting pathogens that cause grapevine decline. These wounds have shown to stay susceptible to infection for up to 16 weeks after pruning; therefore long-term pruning wound protection is required for prevention of these diseases (Serra et al., 2008). Because pruning of grapevine in Akkar vineyard is performed with poor agricultural practices and during wet weather, the objective of this study was to assess the effect of six classes of fungicides on four fungal species from Akkar causing GTD in in vitro test in order to select the most efficient one to be applied after pruning as a way to prevent infections by propagules of grapevine trunk pathogens. Isolates were obtained through isolation on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium added with 0.5 g l-1 streptomycin sulfate from samples of wood, collected from commercial vineyards in Tal Abbass Al Gharbi, Akkar, and showing symptoms of decline, dieback of branches or death and subjected. Isolates were identified based on the characteristic morphological features on PDA. For further confirmation, total nucleic acids were extracted from selected isolates using CTAB method and 50 ng of DNA were added as template in PCR reactions using the universal ITS4/ITS1 primers. PCR products were directly sequenced and obtained ITS (Internal Transcribed Spacer) sequences were treated and analyzed in NCBI GenBank database in order to confirm the identification. Subsequently, for the in vitro sensitivity test to fungicides, two isolates of P. chlamydospora, P. viticola, Neofusicoccum parvum and Lasiodiplodia theobromae were selected. The tested fungicides were the following: Fenhexamid (Teldor 50% a.i.), Trifloxystrobin (Flint 50% a.i.), Boscalid (Cantus 50% a.i.), Cyprodinil (Chorus 50% a.i.), Thiophanate methyl (Curazol 70% a.i.) and Fludioxonil (Teoxe 50% a.i.). The fungicide sensitivity was assessed through colony growth tests in which three-replicated dishes (90 mm diam) containing the PDA medium amended with five increasing concentrations of the fungicides (0.05 - 0.5 - 5 - 10 - 50 mg l-1), were inoculated with mycelium plugs (4 mm) from actively growing cultures, for each isolate. The inhibiting effect of the fungicide was determined by measuring two orthogonal diameters of colonies developed after 4-14 days of incubation at 21±1°C in the dark, depending on the pathogen. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was considered as the lowest concentration inhibiting colony growth. EC50 (effective concentration inhibiting 50% of colony growth) was determined using the dose-response curves. Results demonstrated that for both Botryosphaeriaceae fungi, i.e. N. parvum and L. theobromae, the most efficient fungicide was Fludioxonil (EC50<0.05 ppm and MIC=0.5 ppm) followed by Cyprodinil (EC50=0.05-5 ppm and MIC=5 ppm), whereas for Fenhexamid, EC50 and MIC were both greater than 50 ppm. Regarding P. viticola, the most efficient fungicide was also Fludioxonil (EC50=0.05-5 ppm and MIC=0.5-5 ppm), whereas the least efficient was Trifloxystrobin (EC50>50 ppm and MIC>50 ppm). On the other hand, Thiophanate methyl showed the highest efficiency towards P. chlamydospora (EC50=0.05-0.5 ppm and MIC=5 ppm) and the least efficient was Fenhexamid (EC50>50 ppm and MIC>50 ppm). In general, both Fludioxonil and Cyprodinil showed good efficiency against the tested fungal species whereas Fenhexamid demonstrated no efficiency in reducing the growth of most tested isolates. Application of Fludioxonil and Cyprodinil in prepared mixtures or alone on pruning wounds of table grapes could be promising in reducing the incidence of GTD particularly on table grapes in Akkar. Field experiments are ongoing in order to check the potential of these fungicides in managing GTD and determine the length of the period for which these fungicides can protect the wounds. References: Fontaine F. et al. 2016. Grapevine Trunk Diseases. A review. 1th Edition. Paris, France: OIV publications, p 24. Habib W. et al. 2014. Distribution of grapevine trunk diseases of table grapes in North Lebanon. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 32 (special issue): 53. Serra S. et al. 2008. Studies on the susceptibility of pruning wounds to infection by fungi involved in grapevine wood diseases in Italy. Phytopathologia Mediterranea, 47: 234-246.

Nowadays, the notion of food as only nutrient-providers is changing into the concept of food with added functionality (Day, Seymour, Pitts, Konczak, & Lundin, 2009). In addition to its nutritional value, food promotes human health by preventing or treating life-style diseases like cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. This is mainly attributed to the presence of phytochemicals that possess important biological activities (Dillard & German, 2000). Flavonoids constitute the largest group of plant phytochemicals and are found ubiquitously in human diet. The flavonol quercetin (Quer) is the most abundant flavonoid, occurring in a variety of foods including onions, apples, broccoli, tea and red wine (Fig.1). Quercetin was shown to possess numerous biological properties (neurological, cardiovascular, anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer) (Wang et al., 2016). Nevertheless, Quer lacks solubility and photostability, has a bitter taste and poor absorption which reduce its bioavailability and thus its biological effects (Nathiya, Durga, & Devasena, 2014).

Figure 1: Chemical structure and natural sources of quercetin. In order to improve the aforementioned physicochemical properties of this flavonoid, Quer was encapsulated into cyclodextrins (CDs), liposomes and drug-in-cyclodextrins-in-liposomes (DCLs) (Fig.2). First, the solubility enhancement of Quer was studied in the presence of seven CDs (α-CD, β-CD, γ-CD, HP-β-CD, RAMEB, CRYSMEB and SBE-β-CD) by phase solubility studies. The formation constant (Kf) for all CD/Quer inclusion complexes was determined. Then, conventional liposomes were prepared from three types of lipids: two non-hydrogenated (Lipoid E80 and Lipoid S100 from egg and soybean lecithin, respectively) and one hydrogenated (Phospholipon 90H from soybean lecithin) using the ethanol injection method. For the preparation of DCL, Lipoid E80 and SBE-β-CD/Quer (5:1 molar ratio) inclusion complexes were used as organic and aqueous phase, respectively. All liposomal formulations (conventional and DCL) were characterized for their particle size, encapsulation efficiency (EE %) and loading rate (LR %). The photostability of Quer in conventional liposomes and DCL was compared following exposure to UVC-light irradiation. Finally, storage stability of the various liposome batches was assessed after 12 months of storage at 4°C. Figure 2: Encapsulation systems used for Quer. Phase solubility studies showed that CDs were able to increase the aqueous solubility of Quer. The concentration of Quer increased with the increase of CDs concentration (for example by 12-fold at 10 mM of HP-β-CD). Among the various CDs, SBE-β-CD exhibited the highest formation constant value (Kf =13002 M-1). On the other hand, nanometric liposomal populations were obtained by laser granulometry. High EE % values were found for Lipoid E80-liposomes (99.78 ± 0.026 %) followed by Phospholipon 90H-liposomes (74.80 ± 4.05 %) and Lipoid S100 liposomes (55.56 ± 6.09 %). Furthermore, DCL (Lipoid E80-SBE-β-CD/Quer) protected Quer from photodegradation more effectively in comparison with conventional liposomes. Besides, exposure of Quer-encapsulated in conventional liposomes to UV light revealed various degrees of photoprotection depending on the type of liposomes used. Liposomes composed of unsaturated lipids (Lipoid E80 and Lipoid S100) improved the photostability of Quer more efficiently than those composed of saturated lipids (Phospholipon 90H). Finally, all formulations retained more than 83 % of Quer after 12 months of storage at 4⁰C. The findings are of great interest for protection of Quer, improvement of its solubility and development of its delivery systems.

Day, L., Seymour, R. B., Pitts, K. F., Isabela Konczak, & Lundin, L. (2009). Incorporation of functional ingredients into foods. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 20 (9), 388-395. Dillard, C. J., & German, J. B. (2000). Review Phytochemicals : nutraceuticals and human health, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 80, 1744-1756. Nathiya, S., Durga, M., & Devasena, T.(2014).Quercetin,encapsulated quercetin and its application-A review. International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 6 (10), 20-26. Wang, W., Sun, C., Mao, L., Ma, P., Liu, F., Yang, J., & Gao, Y. (2016). The biological activities , chemical stability , metabolism and delivery systems of quercetin : A review. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 56, 21-38.

Rivers and coastal waters transport carbon from continents to deep oceanic systems and act as important links in the carbon cycle. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have quantified the riverine and coastal carbon fluxes in the Lebanese waters. This project is currently assessing for the first time the carbon inputs in three major Lebanese rivers: Nahr Ibrahim, Nahr Damour and Nahr el Litani; and the coastal waters affected by their discharges. It is being achieved through the monthly and seasonal sampling of key bio-physico-chemical parameters, which are indicators of carbon content and water quality. The project's results are used to quantify the carbon exchange between rivers and coastal waters, and evaluate their role in sustaining the ecosystem services and mitigating climate change. It also serves as a benchmark to understand the mechanisms of riverine-coastal ecosystem change and help the Lebanese community manage their coastal resources.

Les dysodiles sont des dépôts lacustres riches en matière organique. Cette dénomination a été proposée par Cordier (1808) pour décrire une roche bitumineuse feuilletée, qui brûle en dégageant une odeur fétide.

Au Liban, ces dépôts n'ont pas fait l'objet de nombreuses études, bien qu'ils aient été reconnus depuis le début du XIXᵉ siècle pour leur richesse en fossiles et leur potentiel en hydrocarbures. Les dysodiles se trouvent dans la Formation du Chouf ou le Grès de base d'âge Barrémien (Granier et al., 2016), et dans la Formation de Hammana de l'Albien (Walley, 1996). Ce sont des couches de quelques mètres d'épaisseur et d'extension limitée (<1 km), se trouvant à proximité de coulées volcaniques ou de cinérites, suggérant ainsi une relation possible entre le volcanisme et la mise en place de leur bassin de sédimentation. En effet, les conditions paléoenvironnementales qui ont permis le dépôt des dysodiles sont assez mal contraintes, de même qu'est mal connue l'ichtyofaune lacustre du Crétacé inférieur qu'ils renferment.

Nous souhaitons donc ré-ouvrir le dossier de cette roche carbonée longtemps oubliée et mettre au jour l'histoire inscrite entre les feuillets de dysodiles, en procédant à une étude sédimentologique et paléontologique, visant la caractérisation de ces dépôts. Ainsi 7 sites à dysodiles distribués du Nord au Sud du pays ont été échantillonnés.

Nos résultats préliminaires montrent un potentiel en hydrocarbures assez important (jusque 220 kg HC/t roche), dérivant d'une matière organique du type I encore immature, une composition minérale qui repose essentiellement sur du quartz et des minéraux argileux (kaolinite, montmorillonite), et une grande diversité en fossiles lacustres: poissons de petite taille, ostracodes (genre Cypridea bien représenté), gastéropodes, tortues, plantes (fougères, gymnospermes, feuilles à nervures parallèles, bois, fruits), insectes d'eau douce (larves d'éphéméroptère) et coprolithes.

Alors en associant la taphonomie des fossiles, à la géochimie de la matière organique, l'étude des palynofaciès et la minéralogie des roches brutes, nous ambitionnons de décrire le paléoenvironnement qui régnait au cours du dépôt de ces feuillets exceptionnels.

Pesticides regrouped a large number of organic compounds belonging to different chemical families. They are used for removing weeds, fungi and insects and increasing agricultural productivity. Widespread use of pesticides in the past several decades leads to their ubiquitous presence in the environment. Water contamination use to the wide variety use of pesticides in agriculture is a global environmental pollution problem. Nowadays, pesticides are detected in all the environmental matrices including air, soil, water and biota. The long-term occupational to pesticides can harm human life and disturb the function of different organs in the body including neurodegenerative diseases, human reproductive problems, immune system dysfunction, cancer, respiratory and other chronic diseases . Nervous system is theoretically affected by these pollutants. Very few studies discussed the impact of pesticides in the water on human being health. Akkar is the second largest agricultural zone in Lebanon. Direct contamination of drinking wells water by pesticides in this region has been documented in the literature with concentrations exceeded the limits fixed by the European Union Drinking Water Directive. Therefore, the aim of our study to assess the prevalence of Parkinson disease (PD) in Akkar valley, and to reveal association between the consumption of wells water and the occurrence of this disease. A Cross-sectional study was conducted by the Lebanese University, Faculty of Public Health III. And was carried out from July 2015 to November 2015 in fifteen villages located in the valley of Akkar (Kobbet Al Choumra, Mqaitaa, Qaabarine, Qlaiaat, Tall Mehyen, Ballaneh Al Hissa, Hissa, Masaoudieh, Tal Andi, Al Chaykh Ayach, Tal Biri, Tal Abbas El Gharbi, Kouikhat, Tal Abbas El Charqi, Al Mhamra) with a random sample of 2833 inhabitants aged from 25 to 91 years obtained from 1264 surveys. The questionnaire included basic demographic characteristics for each adult member in the family such as: age, sex, civil state and disease history in addition to information concerning water consumption such as: source, quantity. PD has been identified by cardinal signs like bradykinesia or slow movements, chronic resting tremor, cogwheel rigidity, postural instability and sleep disturbances. Data analysis was performed using the "IBM SPSS statistics version 21" software package. Prevalence of PD has been calculated and presented as number (%) and means ± standard deviation (SD). Point estimates of indicators are reported with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Chi-square test, T-test and ANOVA test were used for analysis, significance level was established for a p-value <0.05.

Parkinson's disease (PD)- the most common movement disorder besides essential tremor and the second most common neurodegenerative disease- is basically disease of ageing, with a peak age between 60 and 65 years, approximately 1-2% or 1-7% of the population in the world over 65 years suffers from PD. In the present study, the prevalence of PD symptoms increased significantly (p-value <0.0001) as age increases starting from 2.77% up to 10.91% for age groups [25-39] and +65 years old respectively. It's so difficult to establish the main causes of PD. Identified genetic risk factors are rare and account for only 5% of PD cases. Since the prevalence is very high in our survey, this can be assumed that exposure to environmental factors including neurotoxic pesticides such as organophosphates, organochlorines, and some other insecticides interfere with neurotransmission and function of ion channels in the nervous system and contribute to increasing the risk of PD. Several factors can be associated with PD including cigarette smoking, coffee/caffeine intake, high uric acid levels, cholesterol levels and anti-inflammatory drug use. For both drinking and cooking water consumption, a relation of dose-effect has been reported, even the quantity of contaminated wells water consumption has been increased, the dose of ingested pesticides increased, and the risk of PD has been increased (p-value<0.05); it was the same for the duration (p-vales<0.05). The limited knowledge about the amount of crops and the temporal change of crop patterns near their homes, the average quantity of pesticides in the food intake may also influence the survey results.

This survey is the first study to educate the relation between water consumption, contamination status of pesticides in nervous disorders in Lebanon. Wells water in Akkar valley constitutes the main source of drinking water. Studies showed that this water was contaminated by neurotoxic pesticides. Our results showed that PD was detected at different age scale with high prevalence and a significant correlation has been associated between wells water consumption and PD appearance. Future studies could be taken to identify pesticide's levels in human blood, serum or urine.

Toxic pollutants, such as heavy metals have been dramatically increased and attracted global attention due to their persistence and environmental toxicity. These metals are a natural constituents of the Earth's crust and can enter into the environment through a bio-geochemical process also as a result of urbanization, industrial and agricultural activities. When this pollution reach the ground water the problem will be dangerous due to their toxicity and high level of risk. Facing rural areas in North Lebanon, especially where there are no available data concerning this site of study even though it's the second agricultural zone in Lebanon we mentioned our study especially, in the present study we have examined the concentration of some trace metals in ground water collected from 12 sites of the Akkar's plain (Koubet Al Choumra, Mqaitaa, Qaabarine, Tall Mehyen, Ballaneh Al Hissa, Hissa, Tal Andi, Al ChaykhAyach, Tal Biri, Tal Abbas El Gharbi, Kouikhat, Tal Abbas El Charqi). Duplicate samples were collected on march 2016 and the traces metals were analyzed by spectrometry atomic absorption AAS500 equipped with a graphite furnace method for the detection of (Fe, Pb, Ni, Cd, Mn and Cu) and flame method for the detection of (Ca and Zn). Many parameters (pH, Eh, O2…) also were measured to evaluate the contamination status in this area. The results showed a decreasing trend of metals as Ca>Zn>Pb>Cd>Cu>Mn>Fe respectively 27.6, 0.12 mg/l, and 3.35, 2.67, 0.69, 0.23, 0.09 µg/ml of water. According to the reference values the results show that the groundwater samples were moderate to high contamination by Pb at Tal Andi and Al Mkaytaa 12.82-10.1 µg /ml respectively and by Cd at Tal Andi, Al Mkaytaa and Tall Abbas Al Charki 7.61, 4.05, 3.09 µg /ml. The level of some studied metals in water samples exceed the safe limits of drinking water fixed by WHO, indicated that water from this wells is not safe for drinking and/or cooking.

Background: The main role of packaging is to preserve product integrity by protecting the actual food product against potential damage from climatic, bacteriological and transit hazards. However, packs are also defined as the "silent salesman" that must come alive at the point of purchase, "good packaging is far more than a salesman, it is a flag of recognition and a symbol of values". Packaging can have a great impact on consumer expectations and actual product experiences as well as on the product selection during purchasing. It was reported that each feature of the food packaging can have a specific impact on the consumer perception including for instance, orientation (layout) of packaging elements, shape angularity, color usage, packaging material and functionality. At the same time, however, effects of packaging design on food experience have been shown to vary with intrapersonal factors (e.g., cultural background, awareness, age and gender), indicating that depending on target group characteristics, the 'persuasiveness' of a package is bound to vary. In Lebanon, the consumers are losing confidence in the food supply due to all the food safety problems highlighted in the past few years. Moreover, the Lebanese consumers nowadays are more demanding in term of the safety, quality and healthiness of their food. Rebranding, repackaging and designing proper labeling may have a great impact on reestablishing this confidence. In all instances, an understanding of the consumer is central to the success of a pack design.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of the color, design, label and material of the food product packaging on the perception of the Lebanese consumer. The association of perception of food packaging with the consumer lifestyle and recycling practices was also investigated.

Methods: A cross-sectional study recruited a convenient sample of adults living in Mount Lebanon, North and Beirut between November and December 2016. An interviewer-based questionnaire was developed and divided into 3 parts assessing a) the socio-economic status, b) packaging perception and consumer behavior related to general packaging attributes and specific food cases and c) lifestyle and recycling practices. Analyses were performed using SPSS, version 20. Comparisons of continuous and categorical variables will be performed using independent samples T Test (or ANOVA) and the chi square test, respectively. Logistic regressions will be performed when using dichotomous outcome variables as dependent variables. Adjustment will be made over potential confounding variables such as socio-economic characteristics and body mass index. A p-value < 0.05 will be considered statistically significant. Preliminary results: A total of 547 participants were recruited. The median age was 30 years old and 54% were females. As identified by the participants, the most important food packaging functionality was "to protect the food" (54.9%), while the most important food packaging characteristic was its safety (stable/ not leading to migration of material into the food" (52%). When asked about the packaging materials, more specifically for the cheese, most participants said that the vacuum sealing pack has the highest quality, is the healthiest and the more frequently bought (24.3, 30.2 and 29.1% respectively). Regarding the juice, most of the participants thought that the glass bottle has the highest quality, is the safest, the healthiest and the more frequently bought (64.9, 37.4, 68.4 and 52.9% respectively). Around 73.1% (n=399) are willing to pay more for a better packaging with 59.4% willing to pay 3% more.

Conclusion: Those findings might be useful to assist food companies in providing packaging that leverages consumer perceptions of better quality, safety, and healthiness thus increasing the success of the product sale as well as closing the gap between what consumers want and what they buy.

Intensive agriculture, using high inputs such as nitrogen (N) fertilizers and pesticides, and soil tillage, provides sufficient food production but at the expense of biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. In this context, a shift of farming paradigm is needed to meet the global food demand and the challenge of a sustainable agriculture. Earlier studies of ploughing systems (Verzeaux et al., 2016) revealed that N-fertilization strongly reduces carbon (C) and N contents of the topsoil layer (upper 10 cm), as well as the bacterial diversity. In addition, the incorporation of a permanent plant cover (PPC) between two main crops increases organic C and N inputs, thus mitigates the negative impact of N-fertilization and stabilizes both soil C and N contents and bacterial diversity, while maintaining high yields. To go further, we here assess the taxonomic and functional diversity of bacterial communities in the three following soil layer: topsoil (0-10 cm); between the topsoil and the plowing limit (10-30 cm); below the plowing limit (30-50 cm). We used chemical analyses, high-throughput sequencing and community level physiological profiles approaches. Hierarchical clustering (Ward's method) evidences different bacterial communities and C sources among soil layers, and according to N-fertilization and PPC. Co-inertia analyses indicate that N-fertilization impacts soil physico-chemical parameters, and thus sorts distinct bacterial communities. Species associated to PPC vs no PPC conditions show a completely different C metabolism. In addition, PPC preserves the functional diversity of the different bacterial communities shaped by N-fertilization. A heatmap based on the co-inertia analysis is proposed as a synthetic view of the link between farming practices, bacterial community structure and functional diversity.

Reference: Verzeaux, J., Alahmad, A., et al. (2016) Cover crops prevent the deleterious effect of nitrogen fertilisation on bacterial diversity by maintaining the carbon content of ploughed soil. Geoderma 281:49-57.

Impact de la pêche sur l'Ichtyofaune des côtes Libanaises

Samer Fatfat1, Jalal Halwani2, Paolo Guidetti1

1- Laboratoire Ecosytemes Côtiers Marins et Réponses aux Stress (ECOMERS/EA 4228), Université de Nice - Sophia Antipolis,CNRS-FR-3729 ECOMERS Cedex 2, France (samer2fat@hotmail.com) 2- Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Eau et de l'Environnement, Université Libanaise, Faculté de Santé, Tripoli, LIBAN

Parmi les dernières ressources alimentaires sauvages sur terre figurent les poissons et les invertébrés marins, qui représentent actuellement près de 20% de l'apport en protéines animales des hommes et en sont presque les seules sources pour un milliard d'êtres humains, et cette consommation continuera de croitre dans les années à venir. (FAO, 2016). La consommation de poissons par habitant par an a augmenté de façon régulière dans les régions en développement (de 5,2 kg en 1961 à 18,8 kg en 2013) et dans les pays à faible revenu et à déficit vivrier (de 3,5 kg à 7,6 kg). La pêche paraît comme la principale cause d'extinction (55 %) à tous niveaux, suivie par la perte ou la dégradation des habitats (37 %), tandis que le reste des extinctions est dû aux espèces invasives, au changement de climat, à la pollution ou aux maladies (Dulvy et al., 2003). Parmi les facteurs qui menacent la biodiversité des poissons marins, la pêche en est la principale cause (Garcia et al., 2006). Ainsi, la surexploitation a mené à la disparition de plus de 40 espèces locales de poissons marins (Dulvy et al., 2003). L'UICN (Union Internationale pour la Conservation de la Nature) a dressé une liste rouge des animaux les plus menacés et qui comporte plus de 100 espèces de poissons marins. Ces derniers ont subi un déclin alarmant en nombre ou qui se sont déjà éteints. Par ailleurs, les écosystèmes marins étant étroitement liés entre eux, le déclin observé chez les populations de poissons peut altérer le fonctionnement de l'écosystème océanique tout entier (McCauleyet al., 2015). Les gros poissons prédateurs altèrent, donc, de façon radicale et durable le fonctionnement des écosystèmes marins qui deviennent de plus en plus dominés par des espèces de plus petites tailles et dont la durée de vie est courte. (Estes et al., 2011).

Même si l'on connait plus de 25 000 espèces de poissons, nous n'en consommons qu'un nombre extrêmement limité, et dans nombres zones de pêche, les poissons capturés ne sont pas parmi les espèces ciblées, soit parce que ces dernières sont sans intérêt commercial, ou parce qu'elles ne sont pas commercialisables en raison de leur taille. Un autre problème auquel font face les espèces commercialisées est le taux élevé de prises accidentelles à cause des méthodes de pêche peu sélectives. Et vu que les bateaux se spécialisent en général dans un nombre limité d'espèces, la majorité des autres poissons capturés passent par-dessus bord, mourant ou blessés, parce qu'ils ne font pas partie des espèces gérées. Ces prises accidentelles sont d'environ 40% du total des poissons pêchés, et seule une infime proportion est gardée (Davies, R.W.D., et al., 2009). En 1950, la pêche de fond s'effectuait à une profondeur moyenne de 200 mètres alors qu'en 2004, elle est passée à une profondeur de 500 mètres, grâce aux avancées technologiques (des navires, du matériel, des outils de détection) qui permettent le chalutage de fond à 2000 mètres de profondeur. Cette évolution a pour conséquence l'augmentation des prises dans la strate des hautes profondeurs (en milliers de tonnes) (Watson & Morato, 2013, PNUE, 2006 ; Ramirez-Llodra et all ., 2011).

Tous les ans, près de 80 millions de tonnes de poissons sont pêchés, soit quatre fois plus qu'il y a 50 ans. (FAO, 2011). Et si la pêche devait continuer à ce rythme-là, on pourrait se retrouver dans un monde sans poissons vers l'an 2050 (Worm et al., 2006). En 2014, la FAO a estimé que 29% des stocks mondiaux de poissons sont surexploités. Les conséquences de cette pêche excessive sont catastrophiques car 87% des espèces exploitées dans un but commercial dans le monde sont déjà surexploitées ou le seront très bientôt (FAO, 2009). La pêche excessive affecte toutes les espèces marines: que ce soient les crustacés, les mollusques, les reptiles, les oiseaux, mais aussi les mammifères marins. Ainsi, chaque année près de 300 000 baleines et dauphins, 100 millions de requins et 300 000 oiseaux de mer finissent morts dans les filets de pêche (WWF International, 2009). La pratique de la pêche au Liban peut se résumer en trois catégories: la première, la pêche traditionnelle, comprenant 18 méthodes pratiquées; la deuxième, la pêche de loisir qui inclue 16 méthodes pratiquées et enfin la pêche illégale comprenant 3 méthodes pratiquées. Notre objectif dans un premier temps est d'étudier chaque méthode de pêche afin de préciser les espèces ciblées par chacune d'entre elle ainsi que les espèces accessoires ciblées. Par suite, nous souhaitons évaluer l'impact de la surpêche sur la faune des poissons au Liban en nous focalisant sur la pêche traditionnelle faisant appel au trémail. Enfin, nous étudierons l'efficacité des aires marines protégées en termes de potentiel de récupération.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) residues in foods have been of great concern for several decades. PAHs are pollutants constitute of a ubiquitous and a diverse class of organic compounds that are composed of two or more fused aromatic rings. They are primarily formed by incomplete combustion or pyrolysis of organic matter with special interest in terms of their toxicity profile, especially that they are considered to be carcinogenic. According to EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), four PAH compounds (Benzo[a]anthracene, Chrysene, Benzo[a]pyrene and Benzo[b]fluoranthene) known as PAH4 are considered as important markers of carcinogenic and highly toxic PAHs. According to the COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 835/2011 of 19 August 2011 amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as regards maximum levels for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in foodstuffs, the maximum levels (in μg/Kg) allowed for Benzo(a)pyrene in meat products were set as 2,0 from 1.9.2014. For the sum of PAH4, MRLs were set to be lowered to 12,0 as from 1.9.2014. However, the health risk posed by PAH exposure, and their high presence in meat products suggest a continuing need for their control in meat products. For this purpose, a great deal of effort has been devoted in developing analytical strategies to be able to detect and identify these contaminants, since they are commonly at trace amounts. During recent years, much research has been focused on the developing of analytical methodology for PAHs analysis in meat products, where several analytical techniques were employed. Analysis of PAH in meat products has traditionally relied on tedious, time-consuming three stage procedures. The three critical steps are: sample preparation (extraction step), clean-up and analytical determination. In fact, the main challenge in the analytical determination of trace compounds in such a matrix is to isolate the compounds of interest from the bulk mass of different constituents, some of them very similar to the main constituents of the samples. In the specific case, PAHs are highly lipophilic, thus when extracted they are associated with the lipid (fatty acids and triglycerides) and cholesterol constituents. Implies, the removal of lipids and other impurities in PAHs analysis of meat is one of the most challenges for precise analysis, and they generally need an additional clean-up step. In cleanup step, impurities are removed by membrane filtration, low temperature precipitation (freezing-out), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), supercritical fluids, liquid-liquid partition and adsorption with the aid of sorbents including selective adsorbents; such as In-Cell ASE, column chromatography and the most popular technique nowadays; solid phase extraction (SPE) and dispersive solid phase extraction (d-SPE). In particular, the aim of this study is to develop/modify a cleanup technique that is most suitable for the reduction of bulk in PAHs extracts which extracted from meat products using optimized sonication methodology. The developed purification step is rapid and economically friendly technique based on freezing and d-SPE. The analysis was done using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometer (GC-MS) operating in Single Ion Monitoring (SIM) mode. Under optimized conditions, the recoveries of the analyzed PAHs ranged from 80 to 130 % for the 4 PAHs with RSDs (≤ 8.75) (n=3). The LOQs achieved were lower than the MRL values and the bulk reduction exceeded 90%.

In recent decades, the heavy machine traffic in forest operations, involving the compaction of soils, has increased remarkably. Numerous studies have investigated the factors affecting vehicle-induced compaction and its consequences on soil properties. Soil compaction results in reduced porosity, therefore limiting oxygen and water supply to soil microorganisms and plant roots; the latter influence negatively soil ecology and the plants' growth and physiology. Consequently, forest productivity will be affected. Although factors and effects of compaction are now well known, yet the recovery time required for compacted soil has received little attention. Moreover, the explored recovery time were often short-term investigations (from some months to some years after compaction). In this study, we focused on the penetration resistance of forest sandy soils to examine the resilience of compacted soil at the multi-decade scale. We conducted this study in the Compiègne state forest, which is located in northern France. The current vegetation is a temperate deciduous forest composed of even-aged stands. Soils are mostly cambisol, luvisol and podzosol. Four forest operation units were selected, from sandy soil patches in the pedological map, accounting for different compaction ages. LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) pictures are examined by local relief modelling (LRM) in order to highlight the trails of forest vehicles. We dated these ruts using the management plans of ONF (Office national des forêt) and aerial photographs; the selected ruts are aged from 2,8,13 and 23 years of compaction. For each operation unit, 12 plots were chosen; six in the ruts as disturbed soil and another six as control soil. For each plot, 12 pits were dug up to 40 cm for a pedological description and the compaction was quantified by penetration resistance using a penetrologger (Eijkelkamp Agrisearch Equipment, the Netherlands) replicated 3 times per plot. Due to the soil moisture dependence, measurements were performed during a short time and stable weather conditions. The LRM visualization technique was very relevant to highlight the ruts. Although sandy soils were weakly cohesive resulting in displacement ability of the particles, the ruts remain visible on the LiDAR pictures up to 13 years after compaction. However, ruts disappeared in the soil compacted 23 years ago. The vehicle trails observed on LiDAR pictures were not always observed in the field because of either the herbaceous vegetation or the too thin microtopographic variation. Penetration resistance is significantly higher in the compacted soils than the control, regardless of the compaction age. This result shows the sensitivity of sandy soils to compaction as previously suggested; in addition, it gives evidence for the long-term persistence of this compaction (i.e. 23 years). However, we found a negative correlation between the penetration resistance and the age of compaction suggesting a partial soil recovery during the studied period.

The carbonate system regulates the pH of the seawater and controls the circulation of CO2 between the various natural reservoirs. Recently, several oceanographic cruises have been carried out to quantify this system in the Mediterranean Sea, with only scarce and occasional measurements in the Levantine Sub-basin. In our study, we are surveying the carbonate system in the Lebanese seawater for the first time to assess its monthly and annual variations, and to evaluate its relationship with biological parameters. Physical [salinity and temperature], chemical [total alkalinity (AT), total dissolved inorganic carbon (CT), pH, and nutrients] and biological [oxygen and chlorophyll a] parameters were monthly measured between 0 and 80 m depth. Our preliminary results show that Lebanese waters have high AT (2637 ± 7 µmol kg-1), which reflects its high buffering capacity to neutralize acidification tendencies already mentioned in many Mediterranean studies. Also, high CT concentrations were noticed (2306 ± 15 µmol kg-1) in the ultra-oligotrophic Lebanese waters where a high remineralization rate could consume oxygen and enrich upper layers with CT. Our results are in harmony with the findings of the MedSeA 2013 cruise in the Eastern Mediterranean. This work will allow us to estimate the air-sea fluxes and to calculate the calcite and aragonite saturation states, which are two of the more soluble forms of calcium carbonate used by marine calcifiers, in the Lebanese seawater for the first time.

Duckweed (Lemna minor L.) is worldwide used as a model plant for research in plant bioassays in biological and ecotoxicological studies to study the impacts of pollutants in aquatic environments. These studies are often performed under the laboratory controlled conditions which require the optimization of the in vitro proliferation of the plant prior to any biological experiment. In this study we assess the ability of L. minor, initially collected from Ghouzeil River (Bekaa), to grow in vitro on two different media, Murashige Skoog (MS) and Schenk-Hildebrand (SH), with six replicates of 25 plants each per medium (2-3 fronds per plant). Cultures were incubated at 25˚C temperature under continuous light conditions. The medium was renewed every seven days to prohibit nutrient limitation. Results showed faster proliferation of L. minor on SH medium with 284 ± 32.98 and 711 ± 84 newly developed fronds by the 7th and 14th day respectively vs. 208 ± 8.82 and 412 ± 14.54 fronds recorded respectively on MS medium. Growth index was also significantly higher on SH reaching 9.48 after 14 days of culture vs. 5.49 obtained on MS medium. These results indicate the efficiency of SH medium to promote the vegetative proliferation of L. minor and will consequently allow to perform bioremediation trials under in vitro conditions.

Demand forecasting is a prediction of the sales of a certain product in a future time period; it is becoming very important in the business and economic sector. Companies nowadays make plans and decisions regarding production, taking into consideration costs and profits, based on sales forecasting. The purpose of forecasting demand is to spot the seasonal effect and long term changes in order to make strategies with the purpose to manage stocks and to satisfy the customers' needs, because stocking-out can be harmful. Since the assessment of future sales is critical and important, it was necessary to find techniques of accurate and practical reading into the future. From all factors that affect future demand, customers' behavior is very unpredictable, because it is influenced by many economic and social conditions. Mathematical and statistical techniques are essential in providing forecasting methods for demand and sales, economists also developed opinion polling methods to estimate future sales. Demand forecasting is usually done using time series techniques. The problem addressed in this work is the forecast of items requested infrequently, randomly, with multiple periods of zero demand and a slow-moving nature; known as "intermittent demand". It is defined as "infrequent in the sense that the average time between consecutive transactions is considerably larger than the unit time period". Usually, demand series where at least 30% of the demand is zero is considered intermittent. This kind of demand can hardly be forecasted using traditional time series techniques such as single exponential smoothing, weighted moving average, or time series models like Holt-Winters models (additive or multiplicative). Several issues should be studied first, such as the frequency of demand of the product, the inter-demand interval and the variance of demand; because the use of these traditional methods to forecast this kind of demand show a number of problems like zero forecasts, constant forecasts, unsuitable accuracy metrics etc. Croston's method was the first method specific for intermittent demand forecast. It was introduced by J.D. Croston in 1972 and it's still the very common method used for this kind of demand. In this work, our aim is to forecast the demand of different spare part products. We compared the results of Croston's method, with the results of two machine learning techniques: support vector machine regression, and artificial neural networks. Considering the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Mean Absolute Scaled Error (MASE) as performance measure; the results show that support vector machine and artificial neural networks outperform Croston's method. The advantage of using these two methods especially artificial neural networks, rather than Croston's Method is their ability to describe the relation between the non-zero demands and inter-demand intervals supposed irrelevant in Croston's method. Moreover, these two methods are able to catch the dynamics of the demand series because they are not constrained to the abstract character of traditional mathematical approaches like Croston's method that generates constant forecasts, and sometimes zero forecasts if the demand series have a higher number of zero values. These methods relied on the detailed historical demand series of each item alone, rather than unconvincing mathematical assumptions.

Ambient Intelligence seeks to enhance the way people interacts with their environment to promote safety and to enrich their lives. But, the success of deploying Ambient Intelligence largely depends on the technology deployed, such as smart sensors that are interconnected through networks, as well as on the intelligence of the software used for decision-making. Developing a traffic monitoring systems using (M2M)/"Internet of Things" technologies requires the implantation of sensors on roads, but nowadays almost all drives carry mobile phones. Hence, the integrated sensors within the mobile phones can be used as replacement of the required smart sensors. We propose a traffic alert system that uses the drivers' Mobile phone's sensors and the lightweight MQTT protocol instead of HTTP to exchange messages between the Mobile and the cloud.

In the revolutionarily changing world of Information Technology, user can't ignore the size of data he is dealing with. To keep large data files secured, encryption may be a challenging task to do since ciphering algorithms requires numerous number of calculations which means big execution time. AES, as the standard encryption decryption algorithm worldwide degrades on large data. OpenMP and SIMD Intrinsics gives a big opportunity in parallelizing AES using not more than local resources available in personal computers. In this paper, AES has been parallelized using OpenMP, SSE2 and AVX. Speedup reached 11x in Encryption, and 12x for Decryption. Many of ciphering algorithms were designed in the early age of computers when datasets were significantly smaller than they are now. Datasets, which are now considered larger than before, may take long periods of time to be encrypted. This increase in datasets size has made it crucial to search for solutions to shorten the execution time in ciphering algorithms and enhance these algorithms' performance. Parallel computing is one of these solutions. Parallel computing is a processing technique in which many operations are executed simultaneously, operating on the principle that applications can often be divided into sub problems, which are then solved at the same time. Parallel computing has become a dominant paradigm in computer architecture. Manufacturers of microprocessors have moved to put more than one processing core in a single chip, enabling parallel processing to become everywhere in desktop computers, game consoles, and portable computing devices. Software development tools for parallel computing are numerous.

In this paper, we propose a new technique that does not involve any human intervention in building the relevance judgments, which uses the doc2vec paragraph vector (a deep learning approach) for document representation and the cosine measure as a similarity measure between the documents. We evaluate our method by measuring the correlation between the system rankings produced using our qrels with the system rankings produced at the TREC 7 and TREC 8 exercises.

Association rule is a Data Mining technique. It discovers new information in terms of patterns or rules from vast amount of data. The Association rule uses the Apriori algorithm to generate the rules. It uses a "bottom up" approach, where frequent subsets are extended one item at a time (a step known as candidate generation), and groups of candidates are tested against the data. The algorithm terminates when no further successful extensions are found. One drawback of the Apriori algorithm that for each added transaction, the process should be repeated to regenerate all the rules. In this paper we propose a preliminary algorithm that will update the necessary rules whenever new transactions are added without the need to repeat the Apriori algorithm.

This research aims to create a security system that is compatible with any High Level Language. The objectives of this security system is to secure your application from unauthorized access, to protect your application's content from plagiarism, to make a secured licensing system for any application. This system saves time by providing its customers with an adequate service for all their needs. With total control by 961API licensing system you'll have the ability to license and control your applications. It's fast and easy to install into any project you choose by using our API System. This system will help you protect your application as an add-on security layer. The system provides a safe environment for your applications. Safety is one of our main priorities. In conclusion, 961API is a licensing system compatible with any High Level Language, easy to integrate, it's a security add-on to your application, which aims to achieve a high quality maintenance and appropriateness to be able to meet the ever growing demands of an expanding market.

Par rapport aux systèmes de refroidissement existants, la réfrigération électrocalorique constitue une alternative intéressante: En effet, une telle technologie ne ferait pas appel à des fluides frigorigènes et présenterait une efficacité énergétique plus importante. L'effet électrocalorique (ECE) correspond à la variation réversible de la température d'un matériau polaire induite sous l'action d'un champ électrique externe dans des conditions adiabatiques. Il doit être le plus élevé possible à des champs électriques les plus faibles possibles. Plusieurs approches sont actuellement utilisées pour la caractérisation des matériaux électrocaloriques: les méthodes indirectes où le changement adiabatique de la température et/ou de l'entropie est déduit à partir des relations de Maxwell, et les méthodes directes où ΔS et ΔT seront évaluées par une technique calorimétrique spécifique. Dans le cadre de nos travaux, nous montrons que les propriétés électrocaloriques peuvent être obtenues par la technique photopyroélectrique (PPE). Cette dernière consiste à générer un signal complexe dans un matériau pyroélectrique suite à une excitation lumineuse périodique. L'analyse de ce signal permet la détermination des paramètres thermiques [1], ainsi que la variation du coefficient pyroélectrique en fonction du champ électrique appliqué et de la température [2]. Basée sur cette technique, notre étude se focalise sur l'évaluation de l'ECE en tenant compte des variations de la capacité calorifique volumique en fonction de la température, considérées comme constante dans les méthodes indirectes proposées dans la littérature [3]. Ainsi, cette évaluation est sensiblement améliorée et devient plus fiable. Des mesures ont été réalisées sur un monocristal ferroélectrique, le triglycine sulfate. Les résultats obtenus sont cohérents avec ceux que nous avons déterminés par mesure du courant de dépolarisation et avec les valeurs disponibles dans la littérature [4], confirmant que cette technique est prometteuse pour des applications électrocaloriques.

References: [1] D. Dadarlat, S. Longuemart and A. Hadj Sahraoui (2011), Characterization of Ferroelectric Materials by Photopyroelectric Method, Ferroelectrics - Characterization and Modeling, Intech, 282-304/ DOI: 10.5772/19294.

[2] R. Bartolino, N. Scaramiza, E.S. Barna, A.Th. Ionescu, L.A. Beresnev and L.M. Blinov, J. Appl. Phys. 84, 2835-2840 (1998)/ DOI: 10.1063/1.368424.

[3] H. Chen, T-L. Ren, X-M. Wu, Y. Yang and L-T. Liu, Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 182902 (2009)/ DOI: 10.1063/1.3123817.

[4] V.S. Bondarev, E.A. Mikhaleva, M.V. Gorev, and I.N. Flerov, Phys. Status Solidi B, 1-6 (2016) / DOI 10.1002/pssb.201600339.

Différents matériaux et techniques sont utilisés pour effectuer la restauration dentaire d'une dent détruite, partiellement abîmée ou cariée. Le matériau réparateur idéal devrait être esthétique, adhésif, résistant à l'abrasion et bioactif pour favoriser la régénération, plutôt que la réparation, des tissus dentaires durs [1]. Deux grandes familles de matériaux peuvent être distinguées:les matériaux photo-polymérisables comme les composites, et les matériaux non photosensibles comme les ciments verre ionomère (CVI). Ces derniers résultent d'une réaction acide-base à l'issue du mélange d'une fine poudre contenant du verre fluoroaluminosilicate avec une solution d'acide polyacrylique. Les propriétés mécaniques des matériaux de restauration dentaire sont souvent caractérisées par des méthodes mécaniques rhéologiques [2]. Notre travail consiste à effectuer un suivi en temps réel du phénomène de durcissement de matériaux de restauration dentaire par analyse du champ de speckle. Le champ de speckle est le résultat de la diffusion d'une lumière cohérente par une cible présentant des inhomogénéités à l'échelle de la longueur d'onde optique [3]. L'image de speckle formée sur un plan de détection contient un grand nombre d'informations sur le milieu qui la produit et peut donc renseigner sur sa constitution [4]. De plus, une analyse multiparamètre permet d'accéder à la dynamique temporelle du milieu diffusant [5] [6]. Il s'agit d'une méthode optique rapide ; et non invasive. Dans notre travail, nous utilisons le dispositif expérimental schématisé à la figure 1, comportant un laser Hélium-Néon émettant à 632.8 nm avec une polarisation linéaire, un polariseur, un analyseur et un détecteur (caméra rapide Motion BLITZ EoSens mini) permettant une cadence d'acquisition variable (ici 47 images par seconde) et un temps d'exposition de 3 ms afin d'obtenir une bonne résolution temporelle. Les milieux diffusants sont des échantillons de matériaux de restauration dentaire préparés en respectant les consignes de préparation clinique indiquées par les fabricants. Après l'activation du produit, chaque gel est versé dans un moule cylindrique de diamètre 1 cm et d'épaisseur 2 mm. Le moule, est disposé horizontalement sur le montage et le suivi en temps réel du durcissement du matériau est effectué grâce à l'analyse du champ de speckle qu'il produit. En analysant une série temporelle d'images de speckle, nous accédons au coefficient de corrélation temporelle [5]. Ce suivi temporel du speckle permet d'accéder directement à la dynamique du milieu étudié. L'ordre des courbes obtenues confirme que l'échantillon durcit en fonction du temps et perd petit à petit son activité. Ce qui se traduit aussi par l'évolution des paramètres issus de l'étude spatiale de l'image de speckle. Ces premiers résultats nous ont permis d'établir que la corrélation temporelle des images de speckle et la mesure du contraste spatial constituaient deux techniques pertinentes pour le suivi des dynamiques de durcissement. Au niveau des perspectives, la mesure du temps de prise des matériaux de restauration dentaire est actuellement en cours. De plus, une étude plus fine du processus de durcissement de ces matériaux devrait contribuer à améliorer leur qualité.

In this study, we investigate the electronic structure of the ScS molecule. For the first time, 15 lowest-lying doublet and quartet electronic states in the 2s+1Λ(±) representation were extensively treated using the multi-reference configuration interaction (MRCI) approaches with 5 valence electrons. Potential energy curves, spectroscopic properties and dipole moment curves were calculated for these fifteen states. Concerning these states, the same properties were calculated using two different basis sets for Sulfur (S): ROOS and Gaussian (6-31G*).

Franck-Condon (FC) factors have been computed to high vibrational quantum numbers for the band systems (2)2Σ+→X2Σ+, (3)2Σ+→X2Σ+, (1)2Π→X2Σ+ and (2)2Π→X2Σ+. Franck-Condon factor surfaces for these bands have also been constructed and the influence of the difference between equilibrium bond lengths ΔRe on these surfaces is discussed. Large FC overlaps were reported corresponding to transitions between (𝜈′=0) (2)2Σ+→ (𝜈"=0) X2Σ+ and (𝜈′=9) (3)2Σ+→ (𝜈"=12) X2Σ+. These overlaps have great significance to experimentalists as they provide efficient routes to form ScS molecule through photoassociation technique.

Rawad Halabi1, Sahar Kontar1, Salman Mahmoud2

1Faculty of Science, Beirut Arab University, P.O.Box 11-5020 Riad El Solh, Beirut 1107 2809, Lebanon. 2Lebanese University.

In this work, Ni0.98TM0.02O, where TM= Fe, Mn and Zn, were synthesized by co-precipitation method. The prepared nanopowders were characterized by X-ray Powder diffraction (XRD), Transition Electron Microscopy (TEM) and UV-vis spectroscopy (UV). XRD analysis indicate the formation of single phase of (Ni, TM)O with face-centered cubic structure. The lattice parameters obtained from the XRD were found to be 4.1892Å, 4.1849Å, 4.18396Å and 4.17924Å for NiO, NiMnO, NiZnO and NiFeO, respectively [1].The optical energy band gap, determined from UV spectroscopy, are 3.4546eV, 3.2759eV, 3.0679eV, 3.05eV for NiO, NiZnO, NiFeO and NiMnO, respectively. Moreover, the Urbach energy values for the same samples were found 2.4eV, 3.3828eV, 3.9905eV and 5.4293eV for NiO, NiZnO, NiFeO and NiMnO respectively [1]. Magnetization and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) were carried out at room temperature in order to investigate the effect of Mn, Fe and Zn on the magnetic properties of NiO nanoparticles. EPR lines were detected at g= 2.199, 2.2165, 2.23 and 2.643 for NiO, NiMnO, NiZnO and NiFeO, respectively [2].

This work reveals the influence of lead fluoride and liquid nitrogen immersion on the mechanical properties of high temperature superconductor samples (Cu_(0.5-x) Tl_0.5 Pb_x)Ba_2 Ca_2 Cu3 O(10-δ-y) F_y, with (0 wt. % ≤x≤ 10 wt. %). The samples were synthesized by solid state reaction method at normal pressure [1]. They characterized by using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR). The X-ray data indicate that the partial replacement of Pb^(2+) ions by Cu^(2+) ions does not alter the tetragonal structure of the samples, but the lattice parameters a and c vary according to the difference in the ionic radii of Pb^(2+) and Cu^(2+). SEM analysis reveals that the substitution of PbF_2 improves the grain size as well as the intergrains connectivity of superconductor. FTIR analysis shows that the apical oxygen, planner and the oxygen in reservoirs layers, modes are observed around 415 - 524 cm-1, 564 - 579 cm-1 and 606 - 680 cm-1, respectively. The substitution of PbF2 with different percentages made a shift in all absorption peaks observed in the pure samples of (Cu,Tl)-1223 phase and new peaks were appeared according to the values of x [2]. Vickers microhardness 〖(H〗_v) was measured as a function of applied loads and the immersion time in liquid nitrogen (t). H_v values increase as the immersion time in liquid nitrogen N_2 increases up to t= 1hour, and then they decrease with further increase in t. Moreover, the variation of H_v with x shows insignificant change.

Pure and Erbium doped ZnO nanoparticles (Zn1-xErxO), with nominal composition(0.00 ≤ x ≤ 0.10), were synthesized by wet chemical co-precipitation method. The structural, optical, chemical and magnetic properties of the prepared samples were investigated using: X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), M-H magnetic hysteresis and Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). XRD studies exhibit the presence of ZnO wurtzite hexagonal crystal structure for 0.00 ≤ x ≤ 0.06. A secondary phase of Er2O3 appears at x >0.06. This means that the solubility limit for doping Zn2+ ions by Er3+ ions, prepared under our conditions, is about x=0.06.The lattice parameter a is not affected by the erbium doping. Whereas, the lattice parameter c and the cell volume V increase with the increase of x up to x=0.06. This is attributed to the larger ionic size of Er3+ ions (0.89Å) compared to Zn2+ ions (0.74 Å) .Both c and V decrease at higher doping concentrations (x= 0.08 and x=0.1). TEM micrographs show that the shape and the size of the ZnO nanoparticles are modified by changing the doping level of Er. The UV measurements point out that band gap energy decreases with the increase in x up to x=0.06. Then, Eg increases for x=0.08 and x=0.1. FTIR spectra confirm the presence of O-H and Zn-O stretching modes with a peak shift between undoped and doped ZnO samples. M-H hysteresis analysis, at room temperature reveals the intrinsic ferromagnetism for the pure ZnO. This ferromagnetism is decreased for the doped samples as a consequence of antiferromagnetic coupling between Er ions. The samples with x=0.08 and x=0.1 tend to be superparamagnetic because of the formation of single domain particles as a consequence of small particle sizes. The g-factor as well as the resonant magnetic field (Hr) were estimated for all the samples and discussed in terms of erbium doping.

Introduction: Keratoconus is a non-inflammatory, progressive, bilateral ectasia of the cornea with a prevalence of 1 per 2000 in the general population. It primarily results from the thinning of corneal stroma causing the deformation and steepening of the cornea into a conical shape, which leads to irregular astigmatism accompanied by myopia that gradually results in a significant reduction of vision. Currently, Corneal Collagen Cross-Linking (CXL) is the only technique used to stop the progression of keratoconus [1], [2]. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to retrospectively assess the change of preoperative clinical characteristics in patients with progressive keratoconus and their post-operative outcomes after undergoing Corneal Collagen CXL [3]. Materials and Methods: The retrospective study was based on collecting randomized data of 72 keratoconic eyes of 42 patients treated at Beirut Eye Specialist Hospital (BESH), Beirut, Lebanon, before and after unilateral or bilateral Corneal Collagen CXL, based on a photo polymerization technique of the stromal collagen fibers by the dual action of riboflavin (Vitamin B2) and UVA rays. The collected parameters included visual acuity, refraction, corneal topography, and pachymetry [4]. Results: Visual improvement or stability was mostly experienced by the patients upon examining the visual acuity. Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) improved in 59.72% (+0.5 to +5 lines) and 36.11% (+1 to +5 lines) of the keratoconic eyes respectively, with 25% and 52.78% of the eyes that remained stable. Whereas only 15.28% (-0.5 to -3 lines) and 11.11% (-0.5 to -2.5 lines) of the eyes showed reduction in the UCVA and BCVA, respectively. Moreover, refraction showed significant reduction in the refractive errors of 66.67% (-0.25D to -14.75D) and 58.33% (+0.25D to +4.25D) of the keratoconic eyes in the sphere and cylinder powers, respectively, with 4.17% and 20.83% that remained stable. While only 29.17% (+0.25D to +4.25D) and 20.83% (-0.25D to -2.25D) showed increase in the sphere and cylinder respectively. Keratometric improvement (Average K) was seen in 76.39% of the eyes (0.1D to 7.7D flatter), 5.56% showed stability, and keratoconic progression was seen in only 18.06% (-0.1D to -2.4D steeper). The assessed pachymetry showed reduction in 76% of the eyes (1m to 68m), increased in 21% (-1m to -38m), and remained the same in the remaining 3% at the pupil center. While at the corneal apex, reduction was observed in 72% of the eyes (2m to 61m), increased in 25% (-1m to -46m), and was stable in 3%. Also at the thinnest location of the cornea the pachymetry was reduced in 78% of the eyes(1m to 59m), increased in 21% (-1m to -76m) and had no change in 1 %. Conclusion: Corneal Collagen CXL, as a medical procedure performed on patients with progressive keratoconus, showed a significant effect in abating the progression of keratoconus, improving corneal shape by strengthening its biomechanical stability, thus improving vision, and eliminating the need for a corneal transplant [5].

Background: Prostate cancer (PC) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in Lebanese men and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men worldwide. The success rates of the different therapeutic modalities used for treating this type of cancer can be greatly improved if the disease is diagnosed at an early stage. Currently, there are no reliable and effective biomarkers for PC that can specifically distinguish patients who need aggressive therapy to stop progression of their disease from those who should avoid overtreatment, which raises the need for new biomarkers and a better system to predict the prognosis. In order to determine the likelihood of biochemical recurrence following RP more precisely, the use of a wide variety of molecular markers has emerged. Many studies have examined the value of such molecules and their significant association with treatment failure. The transition from epithelial cytokeratin-8 (CK8) to mesenchymal vimentin (Vim) expression, namely epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), marks an important step in the invasion and malignant progression of several types of cancer, such as breast, ovarian, colon and prostate cancers. The aim of this pilot case series study was to evaluate the co-expression levels of EMT markers in PC, including CK8 and vimentin in radical prostatectomy (RP) specimens with immunofluorescent (IF) staining, and correlate between levels of these markers in the tissue and the clinicopathological parameters to assess their potential role as prognostic indicators in patients. Methods: This retrospective study comprised of 60 patients who underwent open RP for newly diagnosed prostate adenocarcinoma between 1998 and 2012, at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUB-MC). Preoperative patient age and serum PSA levels, Gleason scores, perineural invasion, lymphovascular invasion, tumor volume following surgery, and other parameters were recorded, as well as PSA failure. Loss of CK8 or CK8/Vim co-expression was scored as follows: 0 (no immunoreactivity), 1 (immunoreactivity of 1-5% of glands), 1+ (6-10% of glands), 2 (11-15% of glands), 2+ (16-20% of glands), 3 (21-25% of glands), 3+ (26-30% of glands), 4 (31-35% of glands) and 4+ (>35% of glands). CK8/Vim staining was graded as double positive only when cytoplasmic staining was detectable. All cases were summarized into two groups, weak or no CK8/Vim co-expression (scores <2; ie. stained glands ≤10%) or strong for CK8/Vim co-expression (scores ≥2; ie. stained glands >10%). Scoring was performed three times per slide for the whole tissue field. Number of glands per tissue field was counted and % of stained glands was standardized to each tissue according to the number of glands in it. Scoring was performed by two independent researchers. Results: Mean age of the 60 patients included was 62 years (±5.7). Thirty-four patients (57%) had a Gleason score ≤ 7 (3+4) while 26 (43%) had a Gleason score ≥7 (4+3). Mean preoperative serum PSA was 10.28ng/ml (±7.51). Twenty-nine patients (48%) had PSA<10ng/mL, 22 patients (37%) had PSA ≥10 ng/ml, while in 9 patients PSA was unknown. Loss of CK8 was significantly correlated with pre-op PSA levels and Gleason scores where patients with >10% glands CK8 loss have high Gleason scores ≥4+3 (p=0.018) and high pre-op PSA levels ≥10ng/ml (p=0.006). However, no significant correlation was found between the rates of EMT-positive status and and neither AR expression nor the other clinicopathological parameters. Yet, there was tendency among patients with higher Gleason scores to have high AR expression (>25-50%) while many patients with high Gleason scores and high pre-op PSA reveal weakly positive EMT status. Thus, knowing that EMT status reflects the molecular hallmark of metastasis in cancer patients, looking at Gleason scores and the other available clinicopathological parameters alone may be misleading in PC. An additional small cohort of 19 patients were followed prospectively for about 1-2 years as well. High AR expression was seen in 13/19 (68%) patients, among which the majority have large tumors ≥5cc (9/13) with high Gleason scores ≥4+3 (12/13) and large prostate gland ≥50 grams (8/13). Nevertheless, 85% (11/13) of them have low PSA <10 ng/mL, 69% (9/13) have tumors with pathological stage ≤pT2, 77% (10/13) have no SVI and tumors with negative SMS, and 92% (12/13) have no LNM, which represent clinicopathological factors of good prognostic values. It is noteworthy mentioning that among the 16 patients with positive EMT status, 63% (10/16) are <70 years, 81% (13/16) have low PSA <10 and negative SVI, 69% (11/16) have negative SMS, 75% (12/16) have tumors with pathological stage ≤pT2, and 94% (15/16) have no LNM. In accordance with what was previously mentioned, our findings confirm that we cannot rely solely on clinicopathological factors for assessing prognosis of patients. Conclusion: In conclusion, results of this present pilot study strongly suggest the importance of EMT markers and loss of CK8 expression for the prognosis of human PC. Whereas previous findings have indicated reduced epithelial expression in PC subgroups, an EMT phenotype and its association with outcome data have not yet been presented. Nonetheless, because these markers could have a significant effect on the treatment of PC patients, including projections of targeted therapy, larger prospective studies are suggested to further validate our findings. This study has a number of limitations that relates to the small number of cases, and data may not apply to all Lebanese men because the study was carried out in small case series.

For the past few decades, the Middle East has been one area of the world profoundly shaped by war and political instability. On-going conflict and destruction has left the region struggling with innumerable health concerns that have claimed the lives of many. Wars, and the chaos they leave behind, often provide the optimal conditions for the growth and re-emergence of communicable diseases. Syria, Iraq, and Yemen are countries with major political and economic upheaval, with the refugee crisis at the center of the international scene. Along with the political disturbances, a major health crisis has been brewing for some time now with the rise of once-eradicated communicable diseases. Re-emerging infectious diseases are diseases that have been around for years and were once considered eradicated but have later thrived or resurfaced in a different form to pose a significant health problem once again. Tuberculosis, measles, and polio are but a few of the current re-emerging infectious diseases raising health concerns worldwide. War-affected countries rely on the efforts of the international community to recognize that re-emerging infectious diseases are a global threat that require a multinational approach. As long as political stability in these countries is far from reach, any efforts made towards rebuilding a functioning healthcare system will prove futile.

Background: Several attempts have been made to understand the exact mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of prostate cancer (PC); however, the currently available cancer models fail to recapitulate the heterogeneity of this tumor, its metastasis, and progression to castration-resistant states. Moreover, many drug candidates that succeed in preclinical models fail to deliver a good outcome in clinical trials, resulting in ineffective patient treatment and misused resources. In this aspect, the development of three-dimensional (3D) organoid culture systems has render it feasible to recap the convolution of organogenesis in vitro, promoting the generation of novel and more representative cancer models. Thus, the aim of this study is to generate patient-specific 3D organoids and cell lines, then characterize these models to identify potential prognostic biomarkers and treatments for PC while correlating the outcome with the collected clinical parameters. Methods: In our study, we are employing the R-spondin-1 based organoids technology to generate PC organoids and primary cell lines derived from fresh normal and tumor tissues of patients undergoing radical prostatectomy. Consequently, molecular characterization of the different patient-derived PC organoids and cell lines will be performed, followed by using this model to assess different classical and in-clinical trials drugs. Results: We succeeded in establishing 21 normal and 18 tumour patient-derived organoids, out of a total of 23 patients, and then propagated the established organoids for up to 6 generations. Interestingly, 2D cells were derived from these organoids using the same culture media and were continuously passaged for up to 20 passages so far (more than 3 months). Our newly patient-derived organoids and cells show a typical epithelial phenotype and express CK8 and CK14 (prostate epithelial markers). Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to address the establishment of primary PC cell lines from organoids, which will likely lead to a comprehensive understanding of mechanisms exploited in PC. Moreover, molecular characterization of this model when combined with pharmacological profiles can aid in predicting a patient's drug response, thus our study represents an attempt to inaugurate what can possibly lead to personalized treatment of PC.

Zahraa Zghaib a,b, Georges Moarbess b, Kamel Hadj-Kaddour a, Laure-Anaïs Vincent a, Michel Bellis a ,Pierre Cuq a, Pierre-Antoine Bonnet a, Issam Kassab b, Carine Deleuze-Masquéfa a, Mona Diab-Assaf b.

a) Institut des Biomolécules Max Mousseron (IBMM), UMR 5247, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, ENSCM, Faculté de Pharmacie, 15, avenue Charles Flahault, BP14491, 34093 Montpellier cedex 5, France b) Tumorigenèse et Pharmacologie Antitumorale, Lebanese University, BP 90656, Fanar Jdeideh, Lebanon

The approach of DNA microarray or transcriptome analysis experiments in cancer research allowed improving the classification of tumors, to study the ways of oncogenesis, to identify new therapeutic targets and to predict the survival of patients (1, 2). The new challenge which is thrown to the biologists is now the transfer of these results to biomedical oncology. In our study, 13 newly synthesized imidazoquinoxalines, chemical analogues of imiquimod, were evaluated for their anti-cancer activity. All compounds showed a significant cytotoxic effect on A375 and on other human cancer cell lines (colon, breast and adult T lymphoma); EAPB0503 was the more potent compound. A transcriptomic analysis was performed on A375 human melanoma cells to elucidate the mechanism of action of EAPB0503. The effect of EAPB0503 on A375 transcriptome was compared to that of 13 approved anticancer molecules. In addition to its previously described antitubulin effect (3), fonctionnal enrichment revealed an original mechanism of action for EAPB0503: 1/ alteration of the signaling pathway linked to integrin, 2/ alteration of the signaling pathway TNFR receptor and FasL. In conclusion, the establishment of molecular signatures, based on DNA microarrays (Affymetrix microarray), offers numerous hopes to improve the diagnostic tools and the therapeutic targeted. More and more clinical trials include projects using chips to identify specific expression profiles of the studied pathologies, signatures predicting the sensibility for a medicine, new targets therapeutic or new biomarkers(4).

1-Bertucci F et al, DNA arrays: technological aspects and applications. Bull Cancer. Mars 2001; 88(3):243 2-Bertucci F et al, Gene expression profiling of human melanoma cell lines with distinct metastatic potential identifies new progression markers. Anticancer Res. Sept 2007; 27(5a):3441-9. 3- Zghaib Z et al. New imidazoquinoxaline derivatives: Synthesis, biological evaluation on 196 melanoma, effect on tubulin polymerization and structure-activity relationships. Bioorg Med Chem. 1 juin 2016; 24(11):2433‑40. 4- Stoughton R B., Applications of DNA microarrays in biology. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 2005.74:53-82.

L'ECA-R, échelle d'Evaluation des Comportements Autistiques-Révisée, a été développée pour l'évaluation de la sévérité des comportements déficients chez les enfants et jeunes adolescents atteints du Trouble du Spectre Autistique (TSA). Ces comportements ont été mis en relief suite aux différentes études médicales et thérapeutiques prouvant leur influence au niveau de l'expression de la symptomatologie autistique. Vue l'absence d'outils standardisés au Liban permettant l'évaluation de la sévérité de ces comportements et la mesure de leur évolution avec le temps, la validation en arabe de l'ECA-R a été effectuée en 2015 afin de répondre à ce besoin. Cette étude de validation a montré une excellente fidélité inter-cotateur et a identifié un facteur principal (Facteur 1 (F1)) « déficience relationnelle » décrivant la sévérité des comportements autistiques reliés au déficit des interactions sociales et de la communication, ainsi qu'aux particularités comportementales et sensorielles (Kouba-Hreich et al., 2016). Afin de suivre les données métrologiques, une dernière étape devrait être étudiée et concerne l'étude de la sensibilité de l'échelle. L'objectif de la présente étude, effectuée dans le cadre d'un master 2 en orthophonie, est de vérifier sa sensibilité inter-individuelle (capacité à discriminer les enfants autistes de ceux non autistes) et intra-individuelle (capacité à quantifier l'évolution des enfants autistes). Les passations ont été menées auprès de deux échantillons : 59 enfants autistes libanais, diagnostiqués selon les critères du DSMIV-TR et agés entre 28 à 98 mois (M=62 mois ; ET=17.8) ayant une sévérité d'autisme mesurée par la CARS (Schopler et al., 1980) variant entre 20.5 et 58.5 (M=42.1 ; ET=9.02) ; et 53 enfants non autistes (présentant une déficience intellectuelle, un trouble spécifique du langage oral, un retard global du développement, une trisomie 21 et une infirmité motrice cérébrale) âgés entre 39 et 99 mois (M= 72 mois ; ET= 16.8) avec un niveau de sévérité de l'autisme variant entre 16 et 37 (M= 21.8; ET=4.9). Les résultats de cette étude montrent que les scores factoriels de l'échelle ont permis de séparer les deux groupes (autistes/ non autistes). Les items du Facteur 1 ont montré une meilleure sensibilité dans cette distinction qui est équivalente à 0.96 dans les deux situations d'observation (individuelle et groupe). Cette étude a de même permis de mettre en évidence une bonne sensibilité au changement à travers la quantification de l'évolution des enfants autistes après trois mois de prise en charge. En effet, une différence significative a été notée entre les scores de l'ECA-R en T1 et en T2 dans les deux situations d'observation. Ainsi, la moyenne des différents scores de l'ECA-R permet de montrer la diminution de la sévérité des comportements autistiques chez les enfants de notre population en faveur d'une évolution positive statistiquement significative qui apparaît aussi bien en individuel qu'en groupe à 3 mois d'intervalle. Cette étude de la sensibilité a mis en évidence que l'ECA-R arabe est un outil indispensable pour décrire les comportements des enfants avec autisme, et ceci dans des situations variées et au cours du temps (sensibilité intra-individuelle) et a la capacité de distinguer des enfants avec autisme d'enfants sans autisme surtout à travers son score F1 (sensibilité inter-individuelle). L'ECA-R pourrait donc constituer un outil essentiel dans la détection, l'évaluation et le suivi des enfants appartenant aux troubles du spectre autistique.

Reduced expression of connexin 43 (Cx43) has been reported in breast cancer, suggesting a tumor suppressive role. Our earlier data have shown that silencing Cx43 in 3-dimensional (3-D) cultures of HMT-3522 S1 non-neoplastic human mammary epithelial cells (S1 cells), disrupted cell polarity and mitotic spindle orientation, and prevented cells from assembling around a lumen. The present study aims to delineate the role of Cx43 silencing in triggering proliferation and invasive events in non-neoplastic mammary epithelium. Cx43 shRNA-transfected and control S1 cells were cultured under 2-D and 3-D conditions. Proliferation and cell cycle progression were studied by cell counting (2-D) or measurement of acinus size (3-D) and flow cytometry, respectively. Migration and invasion were monitored by time-lapse video microscopy and transwell cell invasion assay, respectively Western blotting, co-immunoprecipitation, immunofluorescence, zymography and pull-down assays were used to decipher the mechanism of Cx43 signaling. Cells in 2-D cultures were assayed on days 4, 6, 9 and/or 11, while those in 3-D cultures on day 11. Silencing Cx43 enhanced proliferation of S1 cells in 2-D cultures, as shown by the increased cell counts throughout the culture period. Likewise, Cx43-knockdown S1 cells in 3-D cultures exhibited increased acinar size by day 11, suggesting enhanced proliferation. In addition, cell cycle progression was triggered in 2-D (assayed on days 4, 6, 9 and 11) and 3-D (assayed on days 4 and 11) cultures, as shown by the reduced percentage of cells in G0/G1 phase (29%-44% decrease) and the increased percentages of cells in S phase (>230% increase) and G2/M phase (55%-110% increase). Cx43 associated with β-catenin in 2-D and 3-D cultures with apical colocalization in acini. Silencing Cx43 altered β-catenin distribution in 3-D cultures, but it did not alter total β-catenin levels, suggesting Cx43 involvement in the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. c-Myc and cyclin D1 were consistently upregulated in 2-D and 3-D (day 11) cultures of Cx43-knockdown S1 cells. In addition, activity of the 92 kDa gelatinase was upregulated, while claudin-1 levels were reduced. Furthermore, silencing Cx43 enhanced, by two fold, the number of matrigel-invading cells, and induced migration of cells in 2-D and 3-D cultures. Expression and activity levels of Rho GTPases were upregulated in 2-D and 3-D cultures of Cx43-knockdown S1 cells. Current studies investigating underlying canonical and non-canonical Wnt pathways are underway. We propose a role for Cx43 loss in activation of proliferation and invasion pathways in non-neoplastic mammary epithelium.

Layer by layer (L-b-L) deposition of polyelectrolytes is a versatile technique which is beginning to be explored as smart coating for tissue engineering application (Gribova et al., 2012). In the vascular regenerative field, the approach is often employed to promote vascular cell adhesion (Moby et al., 2007; Salloum et al., 2005; Thompson et al., 2005), to differentiate stem cell into vascular cells (Berthelemy et al., 2009; Salmon et al., 2009), to inhibit thrombus formation and smooth muscle cell dedifferentiation (Kerdjoudj et al., 2008, 2011; Moby et al., 2007), and to embed bioactive molecules in the film architecture to design drug delivery material (Newcomer et al., 2010) (Thierry et al., 2004). Designing polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) films using natural polyelectrolytes (polysaccharides or proteins) is then of great interest for medical applications. PEMs made from Chitosan (CHI) and Hyaluronic Acid (HA) are highly hydrated and often behave as gel-like with a weak stiffness (Cado et al., 2012; Gribova et al., 2012; Petzold et al., 2012). They have been described as poorly adhesive for chondrosarcoma and osteoblastic cell line (Hillberg et al., 2009; Richert et al., 2004a) but showed a good human fibroblasts and stem cells adhesion and proliferation (Liu et al., 2010) through specific HA-receptor (i. e. CD44). The major drawback in tissue engineering is that it is necessary to vascularize the complex engineered tissues. Development of functional vascular networks, following endothelial cells (ECs) seeding with the cell type of interest, has been proposed to improve blood perfusion, cell viability, and survival of the tissues after the transplantation (Deutsch et al., 2009; Zilla et al., 1994). However, mature ECs have a poor proliferative rate and dedifferentiation features, making them difficult to use in tissue engineering. Due to the unique characteristics of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), they have been considered for therapeutic applications by many researchers (Patel et al., 2013; Pittenger and Martin, 2004; Wang et al., 2012). The main source for MSCs is the bone marrow but recently perinatal tissues, like umbilical Wharton jelly (WJ), have been recognized as an excellent source for the isolation of MSCs. The objective of our study is to construct a biomaterial from commercial natural products (chitosan and hyaluronic acid) presenting a low cost in addition to their important biological properties; and to evaluate its antibacterial activity and biocompatibility. 10 CHI/HA bilayers are constructed by layer-by-layer deposition on glass slides treated with SDS. Collagen was used as control for biocompatibility tests. WJ-MSCs (3000 cells/cm2, at 4th passage) were seeded on these substrates. Biocompatibility was assessed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), actin visualization (Phalloidin) and the proliferation kinetic of WJ-MSCs stained with dye crystal violet. The results showed that multilayer films of CHI/HA exerted an inhibitory effect on the bacterial growth of the 5 fundamental bacterial strains. SEM showed a fibroblastic morphology of adherent cells on CHI/HA as for control, these results were confirmed by cytoskeleton staining and dye crystal violet staining. Our findings suggest the potential use of modified CHI/HA films in vascular tissue engineering approaches.

Coenzyme Q, also known as ubiquinone or simply Q, is a redox active lipophilic molecule that is primarily involved in shuttling electrons between different compartments of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. In addition, Q also functions as a membrane soluble antioxidant, and is involved in the modulation of the function of the mitochondrial membrane transition pore [1]. Thus, coenzyme Q plays a vital role in the cells. Indeed, deficiencies in Q levels in humans is associated with severe pathologies that obliges oral Q supplementation. The biosynthesis of Q requires the involvement of at least eleven proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In addition to the ferredoxin Yah1 and the ferredoxin reductase Arh1, 9 Coq proteins were also identified namely Coq1-Coq9 and are found in a high molecular mass multi-subunit complex. As a result, the lack of one of the Coq proteins (ie: Δcoq3-Δcoq9) prevents Q biosynthesis in these mutants and accumulates instead early intermediates in the Q biosynthetic pathway [2]. Due to that, a large ambiguity prevails concerning the function of the proteins of the Q biosynthetic pathway notably Coq6. Meanwhile, the precursor of the Q ring was identified as 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4-HB) (figure 1). More recently, p-aminobenzoaic acid (pABA), analogue of 4-HB, which possesses an amino group instead of the hydroxyl group on C4 (figure 1), was also identified as a precursor of the Q biosynthesis [3]. Since Q doesn't contain an amine group, this implies that either one of the Coq proteins or a new protein is involved in an extra deamination reaction. Herein, we report the introduction of point mutations in conserved regions of the Coq6 protein. These point mutations completely inactivate Coq6, preventing Q biosynthesis without affecting the eventual stability of the multi-subunit complex, contrary to deletion mutants. Consequently, new intermediates in the Q biosynthesis were isolated and characterized in coq6 point mutants clearly showing the involvement of Coq6 exclusively in the C5 hydroxylation step. Moreover, we showed for the first time, that hydroxylated analogues of 4-HB, such as 3,4-diHB, could help restore Q synthesis in coq6 mutants (figure 1) [4]. This is the first example in the literature were a substrate analogue can bypass the role of a Coq protein, providing new alternatives to address Q deficiencies rather than oral Q supplementation. In order to further clarify the role of Coq6, we generated truncated forms of this protein. In this approach, the truncated Coq6 protein conserves its ability to catalyse C5 hydroxylation reaction. However, in the presence of aminated precursors, the truncated Coq6 mutants accumulated new intermediates with the amine group at C4. To further understand that, a series of genetic screening and biochemical experiments were used and clearly revealed the involvement of Coq6 in the deamination step.

Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by a progressive degeneration of selective neural populations. Neurogenesis could lead to novel therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative disease by using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) which are multipotent stem-like cells. MSCs are a source of (pro)renin receptor whose gene is called ATP6AP2. The important role of ATP6AP2 in brain development and cognition, prompted us to study for the first time the expression of ATP6AP2 and its subcellular distribution along the neural differentiation of human adipose tissue (AD) and bone marrow (BM) derived-MSCs and reveal the role of caveolae/lipid rafts microdomains (CLR-Ms). Human renin failed to significantly induce β-catenin translocation into the nucleus of differentiated cells indicating a major role of Wnt/PCP signaling in differentiated cells. Furthermore, when cells were treated with a caveolin-1 inducer, the neutral sphingomyelinase-selective inhibitor GW4869, a disruption in CLR-Ms occurred prompting ATP6AP2 to be downregulated and almost disappeared from the CLR-Ms fraction to intracellular compartments thereby inducing inhibition of neural differentiation. Our data uncovers the potential role of ATP6AP2 gene to be one of the factors essential for neural differentiation of human MSCs and emphasize the impact of caveolae/lipid rafts microdomains.

Increasing incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer brings the necessity to uncover new possibilities in its prevention and treatment. Chalcones have been identified as interesting compounds having chemopreventive and antitumor properties. In this study, we investigated the effects of the synthetic chalcone derivative 3-hydroxy-3',4,4',5'-tetra-methoxy-chalcone (3-HTMC) on proliferation, cell cycle distribution, apoptosis, and its mechanism of action in human colorectal HT-29 (COX-2 sufficient) and HCT116 (COX-2 deficient) cancer cells. We showed that 3-HTMC decreased cell viability in a dose-dependent manner with a more potent antiproliferative effect on HCT116 than HT-29 cells. Flow cytometric analysis revealed G2/M cell cycle accumulation in HT-29 cells and significant G2/M arrest in HCT116 cells with a subsequent apoptosis shown by appearance of Sub-G1 peak. We demonstrated that 3-HTMC treatment on both cell lines induced apoptotic process associated with overexpression of death receptor DR5, activation of caspase-8 and -3, PARP cleavage, and DNA fragmentation. In addition, 3-HTMC induced activation of PI3K/Akt and MEK/ERK principal survival pathways which delay 3-HTMC-induced apoptosis in both cell lines. Furthermore, COX-2 overexpression in HT-29 cells contributes to apoptosis resistance which explains the difference of sensitivity between HT-29 and HCT116 cells to 3-HTMC treatment. Even if resistance mechanisms to apoptosis reduced chalcone antitumoral potential, our results suggest that 3-HTMC may be considered as an interesting compound for colorectal cancer therapy or chemoprevention

Angiogenesis, the fabrication of neo-blood vessels (capillaries), is one of the major hallmarks of cancer and is a basis for the tumor's aggressiveness and metastasis. When faced with hypoxic conditions, cancer cells release various growth and angiogenic factors that lead to the activation of endothelial cells (ECs). The activated ECs then evolve into endothelial tubes that mature into capillaries which supply the tumor cells with the necessary nutrients and oxygen for their survival, proliferation and metastasis. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the most renowned angiogenic modulators that has been intensely studied for its potential in treating various angiogenic pathologies. However, the pathway(s) involved in VEGF's production and secretion have not been fully deciphered yet, at least not for astrocytoma. In this study, we aim to determine the different pathways and signaling molecules involved in VEGF production in astrocytoma SF268. Astrocytomas SF268 were subjected to either hypoxic conditions or to stimulation by the epidermal growth factor (EGF). First, we showed, by conducting experiments at different time intervals, that both hypoxia and EGF stimulation lead to an increase in the expression of HIF-1α (well known to increase VEGF expression) and VEGF. Then, the time point with the highest VEGF expression was used to carry out downstream experiments in order to identify the players behind VEGF production. The knockdown of the Rho GTPases RhoA and RhoC separately had no effect on VEGF expression after hypoxia neither after EGF stimulation. But, when both RhoA and RhoC were knocked down together, VEGF expression decreased after EGF stimulation only. Moreover, when the astrocytoma cells were subjected to hypoxia at different times, a significant increase in pERK and a decrease in PI3K and PIP3 were detected. On the other hand, it is well known from previous literature that EGF stimulation activates the PI3K pathway in these cells. As a result, and in order to speculate if the MAPK pathway is involved in VEGF expression after EGF stimulation and whether PI3K pathway is involved in VEGF expression after hypoxia, we added U0126 to the EGF stimulated cells and wortmannin to hypoxic cells. U0126 resulted in a decrease in VEGF expression but wortmannin had no effect. Therefore, our results show that RhoA, RhoC, PI3K pathway and MAPK pathway are all involved in VEGF production when the EGF pathway is activated and only the MAPK pathway is involved in VEGF production under hypoxic conditions. *Note: More experiments are underway to sufficiently confirm this conclusion and better understand the role of HIF-1α.

Au cours des dernières décennies, l'intérêt porté aux propriétés pharmacologiques des triterpènes pentacycliques (Trps) a augmenté. Ces métabolites secondaires d'origine végétale se trouvent dans la peau des fruits, les feuilles et l'écorce de la tige des plantes [1,2]. En particulier, les triterpènes de lupane, olénane et ursane ont montré diverses activités biologiques, telles que des activités anti-inflammatoires, antibactériennes, antiviraux, anti-tumorales, et hépatoprotectives, combinées à une faible toxicité [3]. Par conséquent, ces triterpènes représentent des composés prometteurs pour le développement de nouveaux agents bioactifs à ciblage multiple. Si le nombre d'articles concernant ces molécules dans la littérature est encore limité, cela est principalement lié aux difficultés rencontrées lors de leurs études physico-chimiques. en raison de (1) leur faible solubilité, (2) leur faible réponse spectrale, et (3) leur faible biodisponibilité durant les tests in vivo [4]. Face à ses contraintes, les recherches actuelles visent à élaborer des systèmes efficaces pour améliorer la solubilité des triterpènes pentacycliques [4], ainsi que des techniques d'analyses qualitatives et quantitatives [5]. Dans cette étude, une nouvelle méthode en spectrophotométrie a été développée pour déterminer la solubilité des triterpènes pentacycliques et pour étudier la formation des complexes cyclodextrines-triterpènes, afin d'augmenter la solubilité des ces molécules et plus précisément de l'acide Oléanolique (OA) et l'Erythrodiol (Er). Cette méthode consiste à observer l'évolution de la diffraction initialement générée par une dispersion du composé hydrophobe (dans une solution tampon) sous l'action d'une dilution ou d'une solution contenant l'agent complexant. Les résultats obtenus sont présentés par un graphe qui montre la variation de l'absorbance soit en fonction de la concentration de OA ou Er pour la dilution par le tampon, dans le but de déterminer une solubilité apparente (Sapp) ; soit en fonction de la concentration de cyclodextrine [CD] ajoutée afin de trouver la [CD] nécessaire pour complexer l'excès de Trps présent et calculer une constante de formation apparente du complexe CD-OA/Er (Kapp). Les résultats obtenus montrent que l'acide Oléanolique (Sapp = 8.8 µM ; Kapp = 1,7.105M-1) et l'Erythrodiol (Sapp = 9.8 µM ; Kapp = 7,4.104M-1) se complexent fortement avec la captisol-gamma- cyclodextrine (SBE-GCD), ce qui permet une solubilisation significative de ces composés hydrophobes. Dans un second temps, l'interaction des Trps avec l'albumine a été étudiée en fluorescence et en Calorimétrie de Titration Isotherme (ITC), par des méthodes directes et compétitives [6,7]. L'acide Oléanolique ne montre aucune variation significative de l'intensité de fluorescence de l'albumine humaine (HSA) en titration directe, ni une variation significative de l'intensité de fluorescence de la warfarine en titration compétitive avec l'albumine. Aucune interaction n'est donc démontrée au niveau du site I. Ensuite, des titrations compétitives en ITC de l'acide Oléanolique et l'Erythrodiol ont été réalisées en présence de l'albumine à 30 μM dans le tampon phosphate à PH= 7.35 et des sondes ayant le site II comme sites primaires (L-tryptophane {L- tryp} à 300 μM et S-ibuprofène {S-ibu} à 300 μM). Les résultats avec le S-ibu ainsi qu'avec L- tryp ne montrent aucune variation significative de chaleurs expérimentales et des constantes d'interaction, ce qui laisse penser que ce triterpène n'interagit pas non plus au niveau du site II de l'HSA. Par contre, des essais préliminaires menés en spectrophotométrie à 750 nm ont montré que la diffraction des trps pouvait être significativement réduite en présence de plasma humain, ce qui laisse supposer une capacité de solubilisation et donc d'interaction liée à certaines protéines plasmatiques. En conclusion, il est possible de solubiliser les trps via des molécules de cyclodextrines ou par le plasma humain. Néanmoins, cette capacité du plasma ne semblent pas relative à une interaction spécifique avec les sites I et II de l'albumine.

Références:

[1] Rahele Ghanbari, Nazamid Saari, Valuable Nutrients and Functional Bioactives in Different Parts of Olive (Olea europaea.) A Review, Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2012, 13, 3291-3340. [2] Muhammad Ali, Hashmi, Shagufta Perveen, Review Article- Traditional Uses, Phytochemistry, and Pharmacology of Olea europaea (Olive), Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2015, 541-591, 29. [3] Cristina nche - uesada, osé . Gaforio, Bioactive Properties of the Main Triterpenes Found in Olives, Virgin Olive Oil, and Leaves of Olea europaea, J. Agric. Food Chem. 2013, 61, 12173−12182. [4] Soica C., Simu G, New improved drug delivery technologies for pentacyclic triterpenes: a review, Protein Pept Lett. 2014; 21(11):1137-45. [5] Siham Fiad, Mona El-Hamidi, ix Pentacyclic Triterpenes in Mature Olive Fruits "Picual", American ournal of Food Technology, 2015, 10 (1), 1-13. [6] the effects of glycation on the binding of human serum albumin to Warfarin and L-tryptophan, K.S. Joseph and David S. Hage, J Pharm Biomed Anal . 2010 November 2; 53(3): 811-818. [7] Stereoselective Allosteric Binding Interaction on Human Serum Albumin Between Ibuprofen and Lorazepam Acetate, Ilonafitos, Ju. Liavisy, Miklo Ssmonyi, and Jo. Regenhermansson, Chirality, 1999, 11:115-120.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) using porphyrins as photosensitizers, is approved in the clinical treatment of solid tumors. In the Laboratory of Chemistry of Natural Substances of Limoges University (LCSN), a new strategy of targeting tumor cells has been developed. For this purpose, protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) was vectorized with polyamines such as spermidine, elements preferentially taken up by cancer cells. Phototoxicity of dispermidined-protoporphyrin IX (dSd-PpIX) was evaluated in PC-3 and DU-145 human prostate cancer cell lines. We demonstrated that it was only in case of photoactivation by white light that dSd-PpIX induced apoptosis in these two cell lines. The involvement of caspase-dependent intrinsic pathway has been demonstrated, including a disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential, caspase-9 and caspase-3 activation, cleavage of PARP-1 protein and DNA fragmentation. In addition to this direct apoptotic response, oxidative stress mediated by photoactivated dSd-PpIX induced an increase of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression and activity, known as induction of apoptosis resistance. Signaling pathways involved in this phenomenon have also been described, and we have shown that treatment with dSd-PpIX indicated a strong inhibition of the survival pathway NF-kB, and p38/MAPK activation which was known as a pro-apoptotic pathway and inducting of COX-2 expression. Taken together, these data demonstrated that this new photosensitizer could be a good candidate in photodynamic therapy of prostate cancer. These in vitro data will be supplemented by in vivo experiments based on xenograft models on immunodepressed mice.

Diabetes-mellitus (DM) is a metabolic-disorder designated by sugar, protein, and lipid disordered metabolism, as well as hyperglycemia. Prunus cerasus (Pc) is an edible medicinal plant which is utilized in the Asian traditional-medicine to prevent or treat various disorders. The aim of this study is to assemble phytochemical investigation to assess Pc active ingredients and their potentials against animal model of hyperglycemia. The hyperglycemia was provoked in the experimental animals utilizing alloxination (180 mg/kg). The phytochemical investigation utilizing RP-HPLC of Pc fruit has shown to be rich in anthocyanidin, while that of Pc kernel has shown to be rich in fatty acids. Both, anthocyanidin and fatty acids rich extracts have lowered the animals' blood glucose level significantly (p ≤ 0.05). Nevertheless, the anthocyanidin rich extract has shown more significant hypoglycemic potentials more than that of the fatty acid rich extract. The histopathological study has suggested that the pancreatic beta-cell regeneration potentials of Pc might be one of the possible mechanisms by which Pc ameliorates DM. It could be concluded that Pc anthocyanidin and fatty acid rich extracts had potential antidiabetic properties through regeneration of pancreatic beta-cells. It is recommended to consider anthocyanidin and fatty acids when preparing a future therapy for DM.

Disintegration of a tablet is the process by which a whole tablet breaks up into granules and smaller particles upon the contact with a solvent. Disintegrants are used as excipients to ensure rapid disintegration of pharmaceutical tablets and further ensure proper dissolution of the active pharmaceutical ingredient. Superdisintegrants are in majority cross-linked polymers used in the formulation of tablets to promote disruption of inter particular bonds and breakup of solid dosage form into smaller particles to ensure a more rapid dissolution of active ingredient. In literature multiple disintegration mechanisms have been suggested including swelling, wicking, deformation and particle repulsion, noting that one disintegrant could act by multiple mechanisms responsible for its disintegration activity. This study investigates disintegration mechanisms of chitin and common disintegrants, as well as their powder properties and behavior under compression. Swelling assessment (swelling force and swelling ratio) in different media; compaction behavior (pure or mixed with other excipients) tabletability, deformation (Heckel modeling) and compact disintegration times were investigated on the tested disintegrants (alginic acid calcium salt, crospovidone, sodium starch glycolate, croscarmellose sodium and chitin). Results show that the physico-chemical properties of the disintegration medium such as pH and ionic strength, as well as other formulation ingredients, affect the disintegrants functionalities. Heckel analysis using the mean yield pressure "Py" shows that alginic acid calcium salt is the most brittle among the studied disintegrants, while crospovidone has the most plastic deformation mechanism, followed by chitin. Chitin showed good tabletability and disintegration properties that were not influenced by the physico-chemical formulation environment. Chitin is largely available and easily modifiable and thus a promising material that could be used as a multifunctional excipient in tablet formulation.

Les cervicalgies constituent un motif très fréquent de consultation en pratique médicale. Elles peuvent gêner la personne dans sa vie quotidienne et surtout en milieu professionnel. La cervicalgie est le plus souvent associée à une diminution des amplitudes articulaires au niveau du cou. Elle est majorée en avançant en âge vue l'incidence élevée d'une accentuation de la diminution des amplitudes globales au niveau du rachis cervical. Physiologiquement les muscles de la nuque travaillent en synergie avec les muscles oculaires formant ainsi le réflexe oculo-céphalogyre. Le test oculo-céphalogyre et l'erreur de repositionnement céphalique mettent en relief les récepteurs proprioceptifs au niveau du rachis cervical. Ce reflexe oculo-céphalogyre est resté jusqu'à nos jours un test abstrait et l'activation de ces récepteurs au cours de la rééducation des cervicalgies chroniques n'a pas été significativement élucidée. Partant de l'hypothèse que tout problème cervical pourrait être associé à une mauvaise reprogrammation oculomotrice et dans l'objectif de démontrer l'efficacité de cette reprogrammation dans la rééducation des cervicalgies chroniques, une étude a été menée sur des personnes, âgées entre trente et cinquante-cinq ans, ayant des cervicalgies chroniques dans la région de Jbeil et Batroun. La population étudiée a été subdivisée en 2 groupes:le premier groupe a eu droit à un traitement classique (massage, étirement musculaire, exercices pour le rachis cervical) et le deuxième groupe a subi un traitement basé sur une reprogrammation oculomotrice. Ces traitements ont été établis durant dix séances de 30 min, pendant quatre semaines. L'évolution des paramètres cliniques a confirmé que le gain en amplitude en rotation et inclinaison semble significatif et plus important que celui de la flexion et de l'extension chez le groupe ayant subi une reprogrammation oculomotrice. La sensation de vertige a nettement diminué et la douleur évaluée par l'Echelle Numérique (EN) s'est améliorée significativement à la fin du traitement dans les 2 groupes. Les résultats confirment l'importance de la prise en charge des personnes ayant une cervicalgie chronique par un traitement basé sur une reprogrammation oculomotrice. La synchronisation de trois systèmes de reprogrammation a prouvé son efficacité sur ces patients dont les cervicalgies ont été causées principalement par une posture prolongée au travail.

Le miel est un mélange sucré naturellement fabriqué par les abeilles. Il est riche en substances nutritives, agents antimicrobiens, enzymes et substances au pouvoir antimicrobien.   Pour étudier l'efficacité du miel à lutter contre les infections, nous avons évalué in vitro le pouvoir antimicrobien du miel vis-à-vis de certaines souches bactériennes et mycologiques fréquemment isolées. Dans la littérature de nombreuses techniques sontdécrites et utilisées dans le but de mettre en évidence l'effet thérapeutique du miel (incorporation en gélose, détermination de la CMI, technique de diffusion en gélose par des disques imprégnés de miel, technique de diffusion en gélose par perforation et extraction des substances antimicrobiennes du miel par chromatographie ou western blot). Notre expérience fut inspirée de la technique de diffusion en gélose par perforation. Eneffet,le miel a été appliqué sur les souches suivantes : Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus blanc, Streptococcus D, Pseudomonas spp, Klebsiella et Candida albicans. L'activité antimicrobienne a été analyséeen adoptant une technique similaire à l'antibiogramme standard. Les résultats montrent que les miels utilisés à l'état pure sonten totalité efficaces sur Staphylococcus aureus et Staphylococcus blanc, Pseudo spp et Klebsiella. Une chute remarquable des diamètres d'inhibition de la poussée bactérienne a accompagné le miel dilué à l'eau chaude réduisant ainsi son efficacité sur les bactéries multi-résistantes utilisées. Il n'a pas été noté d'activité antimicrobienne sur Staphylococcus D et Candidas albicans. Une relation linéaire a été démontré entre la concentration du miel et son pouvoir antimicrobien.

Organizations throughout time evolved to be active influencers of the economic cycle of a country. The aforementioned evolution recognized the fundamental value of human resources and conscientiously implanted such value in their plans to attain their vision and mission. Nowadays, human resources are considered as one of the fundamental pillars in organizations beside the financial aspects. Human resources, if managed adequately, have the potential to enrich the organizations' Human Capital. Todays' competitive advantage is centered around the combination of the workforce' competencies including skills, knowledge, behavior, and abilities.

Organizations growth necessitates an increasing number of employees, consequently the continuous interaction with the Human Resources department increases, and such an interaction leads to the building of massive amount of data. Therefore, in order to achieve what the organizational vision and mission statements promise, the Human Resources department must deal with the information necessities by following what Tannenbaum (1990) contended, "Acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrieve, and distribute pertinent information regarding an organization's human resources". Therefore, managing, processing, and disseminating human resources data became more effective using an automated system, namely the "Human Resources Information System - HRIS" and with time, organizations are becoming more and more dependent on HRIS (Ball, 2001; Lippers and Swiercz, 2005; Troshani, et al., 2011). Worth mentioning that at the functional level, Human Resources Information System can keep track of employees', applicants', and contingent workers' qualifications, demographics, performance evaluation, professional development, payroll, recruitment, and retention (Harris and Desimone, 1995; Troshani et al., 2011).

Lebanon as all other countries have recognized the critical role of HRIS and at the same time are aware of the tremendous responsibility to keep abreast of the dynamism of technology changes. According to Mondy and Mondy (2012), "the world has never before seen the rapid rate of technological change that is occurring today" (p. 36). Such trend has significant impact and implications for HR practices and the extent to which these practices support key business strategies. Consequently, the development of technology led to the creation of new roles for HR professionals.

The responsibility to be innovative in the field of HRIS becomes problematic if the top management of the organizations is not proactive. Hejase et al (2012) found in their research that "becoming more strategic oriented is the change that HR role in Lebanon must undergo in order to enhance effectiveness and meet challenges it is facing" (p. 36). Further, they recommended several transitions to be achieved, in particular, "the HR department must view organizational human resources as part of the organization's valuable and crucial capitals; and, the HR department should seek to increase investment in the value of the employees' intangible hidden talents" (ibid). The aforementioned recommendations will impact any progress in the creation of innovative HRIS applications. Moreover, even though Lebanon is rich in its human resources, organizations still suffer from non-existent professionalism and formal processes to provide strategic direction to the available human capital which consequently leads to inconsistent processes, less communication and collaboration between HR areas, and less coherence between line management, employees and management.

The purpose of the research is to shed light on the awareness of Lebanese HR managers and employees and their disposition to offer innovative solutions to close gaps in HR practices and in the consideration of HRIS as a strategic tool to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of the HR functions and processes.

This research is qualitative in nature and is based on interviewing selected number of human resources managers and employees working in different Lebanese companies. The sample of the interviewees is conveniently selected based on the participants' willingness to participate and their interest in the subject. Interviewees were instructed that their responses are only used for academic research and their names are kept confidential.

The outcomes of the research show that respondents were able to suggest nine innovative solutions to reduce the gaps with current human resources information systems implemented in Lebanon. These solutions cover three perspectives: human resources, managerial, and management information systems. The implications of the above may affect decision making and policy creation in Lebanese organizations.

References

Ball, K.S. (2001). The use of human resource information systems: a survey. Personnel Review, 30(6), 677-693. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000005979

Tannenbaum, A. (1990). HRIS: user group implications. Journal of Systems Management, 41(1), 27-32.

Harris, D. M. & Desimone, R. L. (1995). Human resource development. Fort Worth: TX: Dryden Press.

Hejase, Hussin, Rifai, Rola, Tabsh, Hassana, & Hejase, Ale (2012). Major Forces Leading to the Shift in the HR Function in Lebanon: An Exploratory Research. British Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 7(1), 21-39.

Lippers, S. K., & Swiercz, P. M. (2005). Human resource information systems (HRIS) & technology trust. Journal of Information Science, 31(5), 340-353. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0165551505055399

Mondy, R.W. & Mondy, J.B. (2012). Human Resource management (12th edn., Global edition). Boston: Pearson Education Ltd.

Troshani, I., Jerram, C., & Rao, S. (2011). Exploring the public sector adoption of HRIS. Industrial Management and Data Systems, 111(3), 470-488. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02635571111118314

In Lebanon, and after a long civil war, limited investment and maintenance expenditure led to the erosion of the capital base. The cycle of deficit financing, dollarization and capital outflows led to escalating inflation and exchange rate depreciation. Our aim is to study how aggregate activity in Lebanon since 1998 fluctuates with recurrent shocks, knowing that Lebanon adopts a fixed exchange rate regime. In doing so, we examine what role the central bank monetary policy has played throughout that period. More specifically, in the following article we need to estimate the impact of multiple variables on the changes of LBP interest rates. Findings show that the monetary policy is highly anticipated by financial agents, there is no uncertainty which leads to a non-independent monetary policy.

The interest in the topic of academic research has drawn much attention in the last two decades especially in the Middle East and North Africa region. Knowingly that this specific region has undergone violent events and turmoil beside the many wars fought with the loss of lives of hundreds of thousands, many in the university age category. However, whenever events calmed down universities became crowded with higher education individuals seeking both quality education and research competencies. In particular, Lebanon as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran have somehow parallel tracks where unrest, wars, and conflicts have their toll on the population and the youth in specific. However, both nations have shown perseverance, self-determination and strong national pride to overcome the aggressive eco-system surrounding them and seek continuous progress, improvement and special attention to higher education and academic research in particular. Although the Islamic Republic of Iran was subject to severe sanctions affecting the full potential of their economy, the strategic agenda to seek world quality higher education and producing research of national benefit has grown exponentially in the last decade. On the other hand Lebanon which was subject to tremendous pressures and burdens of the wars from the surrounding countries, also found its way to improve its performance along higher education and research. This paper aims at exposing the different factors that may contribute to foster the academic and research relationship between Lebanon and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The analysis relies on collected data from secondary sources as well as primary data based on interviews with academics and experts from both countries, therefore this research is exploratory, explanatory and qualitative. The outcomes of the research shall shed light on the shared common interests between the two countries pertaining to higher education and research collaboration opportunities. Moreover, results shall support intended policies to regulate the future relationships.

Khoury (2013) explains that since 2004 many programs were developed by the Lebanese government to support the Lebanese small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) through producing a beneficial atmosphere based on a prosperous enterprise sector that allows Lebanese businesses to compete internationally. Moreover, it created more careers for the Lebanese young people. This support began by developing financing plans, promoting innovation and access to technology, access to markets, training and guiding the workforce through several mentoring programs. Thus, the expansion of the SMEs has been essential in the transformation of the Lebanese economy. The majority of the companies in Lebanon are considered as SMEs, many still are a small family business and some became an international corporation (Farris, & Moore, 2004). As it is known, the majority of small business establishments belong to family business or even family companies. One can refer to several popular names as an example for Lebanese family business like Al Rifai, Al Halabi, Maatouk, Abi Khalil and a lot of names that are operating in different industries. Besides, there are many businesses in the Lebanese market under the form of franchise, like KFC, McDonalds, and a big number of known brands. The franchise is an alternative to building chain stores to distribute goods that avoids the investments and liability of a chain. The franchisor's success depends on the success of the franchisees. In addition, Lebanon suffers from a high number of illegal small businesses that try to avoid paying taxes to the government. This is allowed because the government does not do any effort to make all establishments legal (Marseglia, 2004). Then, Lebanese entrepreneurs open illegal businesses because they are attracted to open the most profitable business that succeed in the country. As result, some companies are obliged to be registered and pay a lot of taxes while small establishments in the same industries are competing with lower price. Thus, Lebanese businesses face external and internal challenges. Externally, though the Lebanese government is supposed to regulate the business market share, many family businesses are operating illegally, causing unfair competition. In addition, legal businesses face strong competition from franchise companies. Internally, Lebanese businesses use favoritism to recruit and managers aim to satisfy the owner more than achieving the objectives of the business, resulting in both low job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the ethical, competition, and power challenges faced by Lebanese entrepreneurs and its effect on the company's profitability. The importance of this study is that it covers different issues and problems facing the legal small business in Lebanon such as illegal business from one side and strong franchisees from other side. This study will provide the Lebanese entrepreneurs specifically family small business with solutions to help them manage the challenges such as creating a strong management structure including a human resource department. This study aims to answer the following research questions: 1. Why do small family businesses decide to operate illegally, legally or as a franchise in Lebanon? 2. How do owners of businesses behave regarding financing and human resources functions? 3. What is the nature of the relationship between owners and employees of small family businesses? 4. What is the impact of franchise and illegal business on the profitability of legal businesses? 5. What is the future of legal, illegal, and franchise businesses in the small Lebanese market? According to a Lebanese American University report done by Maghribi (2016), family business in Lebanon achieved a significant growth due to its spread and success from the previous experiences. Many of the family businesses operating in Lebanon succeeded in establishing illegal branches at least in the local market. These types of business provide the job vacancies for a high number of Lebanese students and employees. The report was conducted as a step in examining the family business in the Lebanese market in order to suggest the best way to help them register and operate in a legal way through providing the knowledge and examples of succeeded firms (Tavoukjian, 2004). Since the majority of Lebanese organizations are small and medium enterprises and mostly are family business, owners behave as dictators because they are used to have full authority and control of the major and daily decisions (Eikebrokk & Olsen, 2005). They think they are the only source of information and knowledge for the organization. Managers, if they are not from the family, seek to please the executives more than looking forward for new strategies that raise the performance of the business. This low level of confidence in the employees' involvement leads to unpleasant relationship and low commitment of the workforce to their organization. Moreover, what is famous in the organizations is the recruitment based on the use of network or community connections. Using power and authority based on network connections more than knowledge and experience tend to be unfair for some people within the organization and thus leading to a low level of motivation and competency (Soini and Veseli, 2011). Organizations should be recruiting the right people in the right place taking into consideration the required skills and expertise for the job. After all, the abilities of the people within the organization are crucial to cope with the executive's vision about achieving efficiently the objectives of the organization and looking to always be one further step over its competitors. The research questions in this study call for a mixed methods design. There are both qualitative and quantitative research questions. In addition, a mixed methods design supplements the weaknesses and strengths of each type of data with the strengths and weaknesses of the other (Punch & Oancea, 2014).

The Lebanese Universities MBA Program Effectiveness in Dealing with Dynamic Complexity of the Strategic Environment Ibrahim Nour Al Deen, MBA - Samer Dada, PhDc Faculty of Administrative Sciences - Business Department - Global University sdada@gu.edu.lb Introduction MBA programs in Lebanese Universities do not equip students to enter strategic management positions and there are many reasons for that. In this research we are inquiring about: what are the new perspective of reading and understanding strategic environment? And what are the new theories and methods that deal with this strategic environment? Are Lebanese universities aware, do they know, and can they deliver those concepts in the MBA program? We reviewed the concept of system dynamics and complexity in the literature. We surveyed 10 Lebanese universities about their MBA programs. Method The research methodologies include a combination of a theoretical analysis of the strategic environment through a critical perspective to its characteristics, and the theories and method that explain it, on the other hand an empirical study to Lebanese universities' MBA programs. The research is divided into two phases: The first phase, the critical investigation of the literature and a second phase, the case study of a group of Lebanese universities. The first phase of the thesis serves as an investigation of the literature of system dynamics and complexity; this will serve as an infrastructure for the study in the second phase. The second phase serves as an empirical study of the question: are Lebanese universities' MBA programs providing the methods and tools studied in the literature review? The data was collected by a prepared questionnaire. Respondents were students (current students and graduates) and academic staff (administration staff and instructors) from 10 Lebanese universities. Results According to our survey statistical results: There is no awareness and knowledge of system dynamics and complexity neither by the university staff nor by the students. There is no existence of system dynamics and complexity in the MBA programs of the universities in question. The universities are not using enough learning tools to deliver system dynamics and complexity in their MBA program. There is no relationship between the link with foreign universities and the existence of system dynamics and complexity in the MBA programs of universities. There is no relationship between the level of experience of universities' staff/instructors and the awareness and knowledge of system dynamics and complexity in their MBA programs. Conclusion Universities need to teach that organizations and their environments, as a system, are dynamic. Dynamic complexity arises because systems are: changing constantly, tightly coupled, governed by feedback, non-linear, history-dependent, self-organizing, adaptive, counterintuitive, policy resistant, and characterized by trade-offs. These facts challenge us to reinvent strategy and upgrade our way of thinking to a new understanding of the strategic environment. Successful application of system dynamics and complexity adds considerable value to many sectors and organizations, as shown by the literature review and case studies. However, aspects of understanding and developing strategy theories have been doubtful in various management communities.

Measuring the Impact of Interventions to Reduce Lebanese Household's Food Insecurity

Samer Dada1, PhDc, Iman Katergi2, MSc., Muna M. Kasti3, PhD 1 Business Department, Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Global University 2Department of Nutrition & Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Global University 3Faculty of Health Sciences, Global University, Beirut - Lebanon sdada@gu.edu.lb; ikatergi@gu.edu.lb; mkasti@gu.edu.lb

Introduction: The USDA defines food insecurity as a state in which "consistent access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources at times during the year". The main causes of food insecurity are poverty, drought & other extreme weather events, agricultural problems (such as pests, livestock diseases), climate change, military conflicts, lack of emergency plans, corruption & political instability, cash crops dependence and rapid population growth. Food insecurity is generally associated with malnutrition, behavioral and psychosocial dysfunction. 28.5% of the Lebanese population including rural people lives below the upper poverty line of $4 (2007). Food access is problematic for vulnerable Lebanese households due to lack of money or food-related resources. 49% of households were worried about not having enough to eat and 31% were unable to eat healthy and nutritious food (2014-15). The aim of this project is to motivate entities to conduct awareness campaigns and other strategies and to measure its effectiveness on food insecurity and the Lebanese economy at large.

Method: A new methodology, the 'Return on Investment for Measuring Intangibles' (ROI), is being introduced to measure the impact and progress of awareness campaigns and intangible interventions - public and private sectors - on food insecurity and its effect on economic growth and household stability. Isolating the effect of the programs implemented can contribute in controlling the outcomes. Moreover, building a comprehensive measurement and evaluation process is much more credible than conducting a statistical process. The goal of this forecast analysis is to determine the drivers for increased accountability in food insecurity programs. While there are dozens of reasons for increased accountability, ten specific drivers (Figure 1) are significantly influencing the private and public sectors' needs to measure the ROI of awareness campaigns and implementing governmental policies.

Figure 1: Ten drivers for measuring accountability and calculating ROI Drivers of the Research and Estimation Analysis:

  The ROI Objectives*: a. Impact Objectives - To reduce food insecurity by 5% one year after program implementation. b. Application Objectives: To conduct counselling discussions regularly between the NGOs and the public sector. To inject governmental initiatives for raising awareness, building sustainable agriculture & improving its diversity, and legislating new policies. c. Validate Linkage of Program to food access - To isolate the impacts of the program to validate the linkage of the awareness campaigns to food insecurity. d. Return on Investment - To determine whether the program benefits exceeded the costs and generated a positive ROI. e. Continuous Quality Improvement - To identify whether there are changes that can be made to enhance the learning experience, transfer knowledge and legislate policies. f. Program Expansion - To determine whether the program should be rolled out and include Syrian refugees as well.

Conclusion: Poverty as well as socioeconomic and political problems cause food insecurity worldwide. Many solutions have been proposed to reduce food insecurity such as elimination of poverty, sustainable agriculture, improving agricultural diversity and policy changes. Awareness campaigns are essential to reduce food insecurity. The necessity to measure intangible benefits and to convert them into monetary value drove us to conduct this research.

Dès sa naissance, l'enfant dispose d'une panoplie de capacités sensorielles élémentaires qui vont se peaufiner tout au long de son enfance. L'éveil sensoriel est une dimension essentielle du développement de l'enfant et de son rapport au monde qui l'entoure. À l'école maternelle, comme dans la vie quotidienne, l'enfant a de multiples occasions pour exercer et de développer ses capacités sensorielles. Ces situations et activités de découverte éveillent sa curiosité, lui permettent d'expérimenter le rôle de son corps puis d'analyser, comparer et classer les expériences sensorielles vécues. Ainsi, l'enfant devient peu à peu capable d'élaborer des représentations du monde qui l'entoure à partir de la réalité qu'il perçoit. En partant de l'idée que chaque enfant se développe différemment, le développement sensoriel varie également d'un enfant à l'autre. On trouve alors des enfants ayant des déficits sensoriels: certains sont parfois plus stimulés sensoriellement que d'autres du même âge, ils ont alors une hypersensibilité, et d'autres enfants sont beaucoup moins stimulés, on parle dans ce cas d'une hyposensibilité. L'hypersensibilité et l'hyposensibilité peuvent affecter l'un des cinq sens ou toucher plusieurs sens en même temps. La salle Snoezelen, qui expose l'enfant hyposensoriel à un environnement apaisant et stimulant, assure de même un espace d'exploration et de relaxation qui a pour but de calmer l'enfant hypersensoriel.

This technological era has ignited a spark into educational reform. Nowadays, learners cannot imagine a world where communication and access to information is not achieved in an instant with technology that should be commonplace to them. Now more than ever, educators seek complete transformation of the conventional classroom and shift towards transmitting 21st Century skills (McComas, 2014; Rotherham & Willingham, 2010). According to Gregory and Kuzmich (2004), nowadays, teachers are being held accountable for all learners, not only those who learn in spite of them but also those who learn because of them; they add that the use of methods and techniques from the last century does not connect to the reality of the learners' world today. However, many university Lebanese students often graduate and are either left jobless or have a job not related to their major because they lack vital 21st century workplace skills (Griffin, McGaw, & Care, 2012; McComas, 2014; Rotherham & Willingham, 2010). Whatever is found nowadays essential for a continuously changing economy such as effective written and oral communication, critical thinking, problem solving (Erozkan, 2013), flexibility in working individually or as part of a team, are often missing from university language syllabi. Moreover, the approaches that provide learners with authentic work scenarios in project-based learning environments that include a station-rotation model as mentioned in Arya, Morrison, Zumwalt, & Shaffer (2013), projects and simulations of work related problem and professional real-world settings (Gibbons, Evans, Payne, Shah, & Griffin, 2004) are not given enough attention while planning our EFL language programs. Frambach, Driessen, Beh, & van der Vleuten (2014) affirm that the focus on student-centered classrooms where act of learning by doing, researching, reflecting on experiences, working collaboratively with peers and using multimedia attributes such as Quizlet, YouTube, Wiki, Moodle and Blackboard may prepare learners in an EFL context for the real world. Thus, the aim of this exploratory action research is to investigate how current teaching and learning practices are taking place in the Lebanese university classroom. The participants include English as Foreign Language (EFL) students (n=100) enrolled in a communication skills course at two Lebanese universities (for ethical purposes names will not be mentioned). The data collection instruments are questionnaires on the extent of proficiency in 21st Century skills (McComas, 2014; Rotherham & Willingham, 2010), interviews with teachers and coordinators, surveys depicting the types of skills attributed to the course and observation checklists are used to find out whether these pedagogical tools are being implemented. Data analysis will be done quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings are expected to highlight to what extent the above mentioned simulations, multimedia and authentic materials are being utilized and to learn more about students' ability to self-reflect, inquire about solutions to problems, think critically while communicating orally or in writing, and to become in charge of their learning environment. Based on the results, the study will offer suggestions in which simulation, authenticity through the use of multimedia can promote learning and prepare graduates for the real world (Grant, 2002). This study seeks to give suggestions for further research and recommend some ideas based on research conducted in contexts similar to ours on how to integrate Multimedia and simulations in our language programs (Gibbons, Evans, Payne, Shah, & Griffin, 2004).

1. Introduction Today, we are living in a rapidly changing world of technology. It is claimed that our children are defined by the technology devices they use. They are the Z generation; technology is their native tongue. They are not only highly dependent on technology, but also are compelled to stay connected (Turner, 2015). Their digital devices, especially their smart phones, have become extensions of their bodies and portals to their entire world. They take them to their classes, to their beds, and even to bathrooms! Pedró (2008) stated that digital media use - whether in formal or informal settings - can potentially enhance various cognitive skills including: memory, attention, thinking, and executive functions, such as strategy use and planning. Moreover, Bejjanki et al. (2014) stated that playing digital games improves children's attention, perception, and cognition in a substantive manner.
2. The Research Experiment In 2014, the researchers started working on an application that can be used to help students learn (Hammoud, Shatila, & Adada, 2014). When the child is playing a digital game on his/her smart phone/tablet, this app interrupts him/her every few minutes. All other active apps on the digital device are paused and a popup screen presents an academic question to be answered by the child. He/she is not able to close the popup screen before answering the question correctly. Just then the app closes allowing the child to go back to his or her game. Based on the positive feedback given by children, their parents and teachers, the researches decided to further investigate possible effects of digital games on children.

In this study, the researchers investigated the effect of digital games on student information retention. The research question was: Would stimulating children's brains using digital games enhance their information retention? The researchers believe that when children's brains are stimulated by digital games, children would be more prepared to process information than when their brains are not.

3. Methodology For this research, an experimental design was used. Six groups of 95 children- ages 7 to 14- went through three scenarios. In the first scenario (Scenario A), children were given smart phones to play and a set of papers containing 10 pieces of general information on animals. The children were allowed to play for 3 minutes then they were stopped in order to study the first piece of information in the sheet. This process continued until they finished all the sheet. Following the playing and studying process, the children sat for a 5-minute test to check their retention of the information they had studied whilst playing. The children played for 30 minutes, but they were stopped every 3 minutes for 1 minute to study. The overall time for this scenario was 45 minutes (30 minutes of play, 10 minutes of study, and 5 minutes for assessment). This scenario was designed to measure retention when children study after stimulating their brains with digital games. In the second scenario (Scenario B), children replicated what they did in the first scenario but playing with smart phones was replaced with resting and chatting. Children rested and chatted for 3 minutes and then spent 1 minute studying. They did this for 10 pieces of information. Then, they sat for a 5-minute test to check their retention of the information they studied. The researchers wanted to check if taking breaks between study periods had the same effect as stimulating children' brains with digital games. The third scenario (Scenario C) was different. Children were given 10 minutes to continuously study 10 pieces of information. Immediately after that, they sat for a 5-minute test to check their retention of the information they studied. This scenario symbolized the normal way students study. It was designed to measure student retention through "traditional studying". The order of scenarios differed for each group. Groups 1 and 4 went through Scenario A then Scenario B then Scenario C. Groups 2 and 5 went through Scenario B then Scenario C then Scenario A. Finally, Groups 3 and 6 went through Scenario C then Scenario A then Scenario B. At the end, scores of the three scenarios were compared.

4. Results The researchers used SPSS to analyze the data they got from the experiments. They used an ANOVA to compare the grades children got on each scenario. The ANOVA showed that there was a significant difference between two of the three scenarios. Thus it was followed by a post hoc test to check which scenarios were statistically different. The tests showed that Scenario A had the best grades followed by Scenario B and then Scenario C.

Wealth and a high majority of jobs are created by small businesses that started by entrepreneurial minded individuals, many of whom go on to create big businesses. People exposed to entrepreneurship frequently express that they have more opportunity to exercise creative freedoms, higher self-esteem, and an overall greater sense of control over their own lives. As a result, many experienced business people, political leaders, economists, and educators believe that fostering a robust entrepreneurial culture will maximize individual and collective economic and social success on a local, national, and global scale. The purpose of this article is to explore whether entrepreneurship education can positively impact learners at university levels. The study featured 45 university students from different majors and domains who underwent entrepreneurship education. Student's personal and career attitudes were surveyed before and after they were subjected to entrepreneurship education. Results featured that entrepreneurship education can impact a learner at all levels in a wide number of contexts including: self-worth, ability to control one's own life, self-awareness, self-management, personality, responsibility, transfer of learning, motivation, teamwork, interpersonal communications, problem solving, and creativity.

There is no doubt that there is a robust relationship between mathematics and engineering; such relationship may turn to be a matter of dependency in many engineering topics or applications. Several engineering systems can be designed, observed and measured via experimental tools and devices but the analysis of the results or the interpretation of system's behavior can only be delivered by mathematical models. In some engineering fields, especially in digital communications, not only the results are represented mathematically but also the design is based on mathematical models and theories. This study aims to investigate the null hypothesis that Mathematical Skills have no effect on students' performance in engineering problem solving. Mathematical skills can be divided into 7 categories:

1. Analytical Multistep calculation. 2. Complex Modeling (multivariable equations, summations and integrals,…) 3. Different representations of numerical data (graphical and symbolic) 4. Recognizing errors. 5. Using set theory. 6. Real-life applications of mathematical data. 7. Using MATLAB for problem solving.

This study will focus on the second skill and investigates its effect in engineering problem solving. For detailed analysis of the above mentioned skill, a problem from the electromagnetism course is discussed. The formulas applied to reach the final solution are functions of different variables and sometimes change of variable methods are also added to ease the calculations. Note that students learn these mathematical tools and complex modeling skills (multi-variable functions, summations and integration, change of variables…) in the Calculus II course which is a prerequisite for the engineering course being studied. The grades of university students on both courses were studied carefully and a correlation coefficient was found to be 0.89, which serves to ascertain the presence of a strong positive relation. Moreover, the significance of this relation was tested using a t-test where the p-value was found to be 0.038, which made us reduce the null hypothesis to the favor of the alternative hypothesis stating that there is a real effect of students' mathematical skills on their performance in engineering problem solving. This is a pilot study aiming to recommend alterations on the mathematical curricula for engineering students in higher education so that the complex modeling approach is adopted and reinforced. Further studies currently undertaken by our team are investigating the effects of the other skills on engineering problem solving. Our future aims are to recommend mathematical curricula that are more suited to engineering.

Nowadays, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is becoming essential for educators to facilitate future lifelong learning (Shan-Fu, 2013). The ICT barriers, in the current paper, refer to the factors that frustrate teachers who are teaching Physics courses from using different high tech tools and are retarding its implementation in their Secondary classes (Domi and Alshnnag, 2008; Bingimlas, 2009)) . Since 2000, the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher education (MEHE) has been deciding to integrate ICT in education (Burns, 2011). Supported by many US-based companies (Intel, Cisco, etc.), MEHE launched many initiatives to implement ICT in Lebanese classes but all their efforts were focused on the hardware with less concern on the teachers and curriculum (Alameh, 2013). In spite, many teachers' initiatives in implementing ICT in their classes, especially in Physics classes, the status of ICT in the Lebanese secondary classes is still fuzzy (Mo'dad, 2012) and its predicted impact can't be investigated in the absence of investigating the main barriers that prohibit its use from the teachers' perspective (Mndzebele, 2013; Hassler et al., 2016) Consequently, this endeavour is aimed to: 1- investigate the ICT status in the Lebanese secondary Physics classes; 2- highlight the different barriers that affect the appropriate integration for ICT in Physics courses; and 3- provide recommendations. The study addresses three central questions pivoted around the schools' vision, ICT teachers' barriers, and teachers' suggestions to overcome these barriers. This real field study adopted the quantitative method to answer the study questions and examine the indicated barriers for appropriate implementation of ICT. The selected representative sample, using the sample size calculator, is formed of 94 Lebanese secondary official and private schools from different Lebanese districts designated by random sampling process out of a population of 443 English Lebanese secondary schools. 141 secondary school Physics teachers responded to the designed attitude test survey after the approval of the MEHE. The reliability of the Surveys' questions related to the ICT barriers was measured by Cronbach's alpha with internal consistency of 0.686 between these questions. Using Statistic Package of Social Science v19 (SPSS), the collected data was analysed using the percentages, means, and standard deviations of the descriptive statistics. The results in the context of the research questions indicated that ICT implementation in Physics courses at the Lebanese secondary schools was not achieved yet in spite of the existence of some computers and ICT resources in schools. There is a lack in ICT vision in most of the Lebanese secondary schools. 54.5% of the Lebanese secondary schools in the sample revealed the non-existence of an ICT vision in their schools. Additionally, more than 25% of the Physics teachers in the sample revealed that they didn't receive any support or encouragement to use educational technology tools in their teaching/learning process and most of the teachers claimed about their needs for training session in how to use ICT effectively in the Physics classes. Furthermore, the results highlighted that the linear available percentage of ICT resources in the schools of the sample did not exceed 22% of the schools. Most of ICT resources are not available (9.2% is the percentage of the availability of Google Apps for Education; 7.8% is the percentage of the availability of online resources; 11.3% is the percentage of the availability of e-assessment tools). In spite that the percentage of the availability of Internet access at the schools is high (43%) compared to others percentages, but its availability percentage for Physics classes did not exceed 25% of the schools. Moreover, the utilization of these tools in Physics courses is so weak. Unfortunately, 63% of the teachers in the sample revealed that they never use any of ICT resources in their classes. Teachers indicated many interacting barriers that prevent ICT efficient implementation in their classes at schools' level, teachers' level and curricula's level. Some of these barriers are of very high effect on the implementation process as the loaded curriculum (Stoilescu, 2014) with large content and its inflexibility with the new methods of learning away from the traditional method. Others are of high effect as the lack of financial support and resources (Accuosti, 2014), unavailability of computers and internet in Physics class room, lack of ICT training sessions, and students crowded classes. Physics teachers from their perspective and experience recommended different propositions for more effective ICT implementation summarized by developing schools' infra structure, increasing finance support for schools, training teachers to develop their ICT skills and developing the Lebanese Physics curriculum in particular and all the Lebanese curricula in general. As a conclusion, the study approved that efficient ICT implementation in Physics courses was not attained. Many barriers interact to hinder this implementation. Thus, the MEHE, policy makers, schools, teachers and community should cooperate, each in his field for best implementation of ICT in education. Policy makers and the MEHE are responsible for developing ICT infrastructure, ICT resources and curricula. Schools should integrate ICT in their vision and develop their ICT resources and teachers' ICTs skills. Teachers in the same context must understand the role of ICT in facilitating learning and finally the community should support by raising funds and securing appropriate resources.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of ICT, especially the online assessment tool Kahoot, on the learners of English language university courses.

The problem: The traditional method of asking students questions at the end of a class, or utilizing a sudden quiz, doesn't sufficiently evaluate students' understanding of the lesson. This is because students might be afraid to express themselves in front of the class, especially in university courses where they are new to one another and are placed in unfamiliar surroundings. In most classes, there are students who prefer to stay silent even if they have interesting ideas on certain issues probably due to weak verbal skills, nervous personalities, as well as the lack of interest of engaging in class discussions. At times, instructors are faced with classes that do not engage in discussions or do not ask questions and this unfortunately increases teacher speaking time and direct instruction. Finally, preparing quizzes to test the students' understanding after each lesson is not practical or time-efficient.

ICT and Kahoot: Information and Communication Technology has been pivotal in the teaching process of current generations. Conventional educational practices no longer support students to survive economically in today's workplace. ICT skills are essential for "both students and teachers to live, learn, and work successfully in an increasing complex, information-rich, and knowledge-based society" (UNESCO 1). As technology has entered every corner of modern life, it is necessary that this technology be used in classrooms to maintain student engagement, to strengthen the role of the student in classroom learning, to increase the knowledge learned in the classroom, and to efficiently record and evaluate the process of learning. In an information age, kids and students can no longer be explicitly approached as naïve and innocent beings that await adults to guide them and teach them. They create content and publish it, sharing it with the rest of the world (Lloyd). Today's Web 2.0 applications allow more interactivity and contribution than the "read-only" Web 1.0 technologies (Sutton and Basiel). In this context, Kahoot is one of the efficient ICTs to be used in classrooms around the world. Kahoot is an online assessment tool that was launched in 2003 and currently has 50 million users. It allows the teacher to create quizzes, surveys, discussions, and jumble exercises on a variety of topics. Case Study: As an English language instructor at Phoenicia University, I was faced with the challenge of meeting the English course objectives as well as engaging the students in the learning process. Most students find studying English a requirement they are obliged to finish, and thus lack motivation in the English classes. After discovering Kahoot, I began employing it in my course Intensive 300, which is similar to Remedial English, and obtained impressive results. A structured interview via surveys was distributed across the students to determine the extent of including Web 2.0 technologies, such as Kahoot, to enhance the teaching and learning of English. The surveys were carried out before the integration of Kahoot and after a semester of using Kahoot. The first step of using Kahoot is by creating or finding an online quiz, the most common method of assessment. The user has the option of searching and selecting from the public quizzes available that are prepared by students and teachers worldwide. The other option that was the most effective was to create customized quizzes depending on the class lesson. The second step is for students to open the website of Kahoot using their phones, tabs, or laptops, and sign in to the selected quiz using a pin number they locate on the projected screen in front of them. The game or quiz then begins with the multiple-choice questions and answer choices projected on the LCD screen, and then the students select the correct answer choice on their phones. Each question has a certain time constraint that can be selected based on the difficulty of the question. After all students answer the question, a new page is loaded on the LCD screen that shows the score of the individual teams. Students who choose the correct answer the quickest receive the highest score. This creates a sense of competition among the students, and motivates them to continue with the following questions.

Findings: By using Kahoot, the educator would be able to observe which questions the students found more difficult than others, and consequently explain the common mistakes to the whole class. Furthermore, Kahoot ensured that almost all students left the classroom understanding the lesson's objectives and goals. It could also be used at the beginning of a lesson for brainstorming or testing students' knowledge on a certain lesson or topic. Kahoot is also a way of self-assessment for students that helps them to identify any instances of misunderstanding the material in class. At the same time, Kahoot created a competitive and enjoyable environment in the classroom where students needed to truly pay attention, cooperate with other students, and use ICT in the an effective way to improve their educational learning and 21st century skills. Although Kahoot is an excellent assessment tool in mostly assessing students' comprehension of class lessons and explanations with short answer-based questions, it is insufficient to assess all the English learners' skills such as reading and writing.

Conclusion: Despite its limitations, Kahoot was more than an effective tool to assess student learning in university education. Kahoot became something students looked forward to at the end of the class, and the first thing they asked when they entered the classroom. Kahoot, the ICT tool used in this study, can be adopted in classrooms across various disciplines to encourage student engagement and learning. References Lloyd, MM. "There, yet not There: Human Relationships with Technology." Journal of Learning Design 3 (2010): 1-13. Sutton, B and A Basiel. Teaching and Learning Online: New Models of Learning for a Connected World. 2nd. Routledge, 2013. UNESCO, I. "Competency Standards for Teachers: Policy Framework." 2008.

In this paper a novel model is presented. This model is an analog block that stabilizes both the amplitude and the offset level of the same oscillating signal. The model was tested under differing conditions. The frequency was varied in order to show the frequency range of the device. Performance parameters were also varied and so the criteria that determine the performance were identified.

Audible noise of electric machines has become an important criterion in their design. This noise will be generated mainly by the electromagnetic source vibration of the stator of the electric machine [1]. In order to well predict and control this noise (and vibration) this study presents the effect of the geometrical variability on the vibration behavior of an electric machine using a finite element model. This work focuses on the stator level of the machine since it will be considered as the main acoustic source. This study is presented on a wound rotor synchronous motor. The geometry of the stator is modeled on SolidWorks, the finite element software ANSYS is used to build the numerical model and to do the simulations. A mesh convergence study will be done in order to determine the optimal mesh to use in nominal configuration; this mesh will be used in the study taking into account the variability [1]. In design of electrical motor, the sources of uncertainties can be numerous. Here, different geometrical uncertain parameters (inner and outer radii, tooth thickness and length, stator length …) will be considered. Monte Carlo simulations will be performed with ANSYS to obtain statistical quantities and then the natural frequencies variability will be evaluated for the first mode shapes (<20 kHz). As a conclusion, we will present the most affective geometrical and manufacturing parameters on the vibrations variability.

References: [1]: Frédéric Druesne , Jaafar Hallal , Pascal Lardeur , Vincent Lanfranchi , Modal stability procedure applied to variability in vibration from electromagnetic origin for an electric motor, Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 122:61-74 • December 2016

The use of turbochargers is becoming increasingly popular in automotive applications and an essential method to compensate the lost energy in an engine. The main function of the turbocharger is to benefit from the exhaust of the engine, by the application of a turbine attached to a compressor via a shaft, into providing more air, thus more oxygen, to the engine in order to enhance the combustion process of the fuel into generating a more effective torque. However, the mass moment of inertia of the turbine, being made of high density material, poses a response-lag (called Turbo-lag), which is a time-delay for the turbine to reach the needed rotational speed to achieve a boost. The aim of this paper is to find material that can replace the nickel based Inconel or titanium alloy in the making of the turbine in order to reduce the Turbo lag, and still maintain the temperature resistance, pressure tolerance, and a factor of safety to resist failure. The main domain of this research is the composite materials field, which is becoming the essence of the new industrial and technological designs. Four materials were studied; Zirconium Oxide, Silicon Nitride, Silicon Carbide, and Boron Carbide. Silicon Nitride was the suitable material to the application of the turbine wheel in a turbocharger due to its mechanical properties and its high heat resistance.

Cette recherche prend comme objet d'étude l'analyse du paysage éducatif libanais ; paysage aux multiples facettes, héritage des dominations étrangères (Empire ottoman, mandat français), et qui connaît aujourd'hui divers problèmes au niveau de la gestion du projet, de son application, de ses politiques, et surtout de l'appropriation de ce "bien commun" par ses usagers. Afin donc d'analyser les liens qui existent entre le projet d'école et les autorités nationales et locales, nous avons passé une série d'entretiens avec les responsables des différents échelons administratifs et tous ceux qui jouent un rôle dans la conception d'un établissement scolaire. Appuyée par des textes de lois et des décrets qui abordent de près ou de loin l'architecture scolaire, notre intervention porte sur la démarche du projet - à savoir "la façon de faire" de l'Etat qui suit souvent la doctrine "on construit là où le terrain se situe".

Beyrouth connaît des problèmes de circulation depuis la guerre, qui a laissé des dégâts énormes sur les infrastructures de transport. Les projets de mobilité, développés en période d'après-guerre furent restreints à la planification de voies rapides. L'étude est concentrée sur la mobilité quotidienne et ses modes physiques. Donc l'intérêt est d'analyser les déplacements des biens et des personnes pour des objets routiniers. Un nouveau rapport est considéré à la ville, qui est sensible au confort de l'homme. Nous consacrons une attention vers les différents éléments urbains affectant l'homme et sa mobilité. L'objectif est d'apporter une nouvelle approche au sujet de la mobilité à Beyrouth. Pour étudier la relation du citadin avec son milieu de déplacement, nous avons mené une enquête sur trois terrains d'étude. Quels sont les pratiques de mobilité des citadins à Beyrouth et quels est l'imaginaire social des politiques de mobilité actuelles? Nous présentons dans cette intervention, la démarche adoptée pour l'étude et l'analyse sociales des trois sites d'étude choisis, qui sont: Hamra, le Centre-ville de Beyrouth et la rue Damas. En plus, nous exposons les résultats de l'enquête.

Lebanon witnessed one of its biggest dangerous environmental crisis due to the oil spill caused by Israel bombard of fuel storage tanks in war 2006. Official reports stated that around 15000 tons of heavy fuel oil spilled in sea water. The spill affected the ecosystem starting from the maritime life and not ending in the human life and the environmental disasters. This highlights the necessity of having oil spill detection system that is able to specify the spill area and to provide statistical information about the situation. One of the main techniques used nowadays is airborne and satellite remote sensing systems. Satellites provide synoptic scale data, nevertheless the limitations present from overpass frequency, timing and low spatial resolution. Airborne systems can be used as much as required, providing higher spatial resolution and allowing for real time dataset processing. Given the criticality of the high technological readiness level to operational use of remote sensing products, and taking into account the need for quick assessment tool for similar scenarios in Lebanon, we propose in our work to use drones in oil spill detection systems. Parallelization in scanning can help covering large area in a critical time. Furthermore, drones, similarly to airborne system, have very good accessibility with high spatial resolution, with a principal advantage of low relative cost. In this paper, we present a radar dual-frequency technique in order to detect thick oil spill in ocean. This technique is also capable of providing an estimation of the oil thickness measurements that may varies due to ocean roughness and noise in electronic devices. The study will be extended to derive the optimum dual-frequency choice that minimizes the error in oil thickness estimation. Experimental results will be conducted in IMEP-LAHC laboratory at Grenoble-France in order to obtain the empirical model and to compare it with previous results obtained.

Since the Lebanese waste crisis in 2015, waste has been the "talk of the town". However, this problem is not the result of the 2015 crisis it is the consequence of relying on emergency response measures since 1997 rather than relying on long-term effective treatment plans. The explosion of this issue in 2015 evoked many attempts to reduce the waste attack to our lands, atmosphere and health, some of these attempts were waste management strategies and others were methods that utilize waste to produce energy. Indeed, while we look at garbage as a dirty product of our activities, science looks at it as a raw material that supports the continuity of these activities. Generating energy from waste is an enormous field of study that covers many methodologies. Yet, generating biogas from organic waste distinguishes itself among other methods in that it absolutely keeps zero percent waste left behind. It digests organic waste which composes 52.5% of our waste in Lebanon that is 1,338,750 tons per year, and most importantly it can be scaled large or small so it doesn't require big investments and can be done by individual initiatives. Through this project, we are going to introduce the waste to biogas system which is built based on our society's daily needs of biogas consumption and organic waste disposal because it will be responsible to transform food leftovers daily produced at home into biogas that in return is used as a source of energy, in addition to fertilizers that are used to nourish plants. Hence, building a closed sustainable energy cycle. Moreover, we are going to run the system by the bacteria living in animal manures. These unpaid labors are responsible about the waste to biogas transformation through anaerobic digestion. The system simply works by throwing the organic waste produced at home into its cavity within which the waste are digested into effluent rich with nutrients and biogas that is drawn out and stored to be used for energy generation.

Olive growing has profoundly advanced in the last decades. It is an essential element in the agricultural economy of many Mediterranean countries and the trend of world consumption is increasing over the years. In Lebanon, olive tree cultivation occupies the first rank in tree production, specifically since this tree is truly adapted to our climate. It forms the first national arboriculture and is of great importance for the rural economy, environment and Lebanese heritage. Olive growing has evolved productive surfaces following a renewal of abandoned orchards or cultivation of new areas. This has led to an increase in production. The Lebanese olive oil sector consists of around 485 mill distributed in the main olive producing areas. The majority of oil mills are traditional, with around 10 percent of three-phases, two-phases and few sinolea processing systems. The olive industry generates an important production of pomace, margion and olive mill wastewater. In most cases, these by-products with considerable concentrations of organic matter and toxic substances are rejected directly and without prior treatment into the natural environment (natural receptors, streams). These by-products reduces the soil fertility contaminate the groundwater and surface water by fixing the toxic substances or infiltrating and reaching the groundwater creating a major environmental problem in the main olive producing regions. Accordingly, the aim of this research was to investigate the influence of different processing system actually present in Lebanon on the environment. To achieve this objective, samples of paste before processing, pomace, and olive mill wastewater were collected from press and three-phases olive mills located in Akkar in North of Lebanon and Hasbaya in South of Lebanon, and from a sinolea system coupled to a three-phases olive mill situated in Hasbaya. In addition, samples of olive paste before processing and of margion were collected from two-phases olive mill located in Akkar. The samples were collected at three ripening stages: early harvesting (end October), intermediate harvesting (mid November) and late harvesting (beginning December). Oil content in olive paste, in pomace and in margion was determined by soxhlet method to estimate the oil extractability of each processing system. In addition, BOD, COD, pH, electrical conductivity, organic matter, nitrogen content, and many other minerals were analyzed. The results showed higher moisture content in paste and pomace from Akkar region in comparison with Hasbaya region. Besides, slightly higher oil content was observed in paste and pomace from Akkar together with slightly higher oil extractability in Akkar region. In addition, an increase in oil content of olive paste was observed along ripening. This results in an increase in oil depletion from the pomace. Concerning the processing system, two-phases system showed the lower extractability (22.33%) and press system the highest one (37.02%). Three-phases system and sinolea system coupled to three-phases system showed intermediate oil extractability (29.27% and 29.8% consecutively). Two-phases system provided the highest water content of the pomace (64.48%), followed by three-phases (51.68%) and sinolea (49.94%) and press system (28.27%). Regarding olive mill wastewater, the values of BOD, COD and electrical conductivity and the percentage of organic matter were higher in Akkar than in Hasbaya. However, the pH was lower in Akkar (4.1) than in Hasbaya (6.72). The press system showed the highest values of BOD, COD, electrical conductivity and organic matter in comparison to three-phases and sinolea processing systems. It is worth to mention that the values of BOD, COD, electrical conductivity and the organic matter were increasing with ripening. Simultaneously, the values of pH were decreasing with ripening making the liquid more acid. Our results indicate a pollution potential of the olive mill by-products and a wide variability in composition in relation to harvesting and processing systems. However, further compositional analyses of the pomace, margion and olive mill wastewater are still needed in order to come up with a series of recommendations addressed to oil millers and to farmers to reduce the impact of these by-products on Lebanese environment.

Lebanon is a country relatively blessed with adequate water resources. However, studies have revealed not only a significant deficit but also a deterioration of freshwater quality. In fact, the high population growth, rapid urbanization, industrial development, rising living standards, increased reliance on irrigation and improper management of resources have led to an overexploitation of groundwater aquifers, especially coastal aquifers. This has in turn amplified the situation by the creation of another widespread phenomenon that affects water quality: seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers. This is a natural occurrence but the problem in Lebanon is that the extracted water is not being treated before usage. As a result, the agriculture, industrial and household sectors in Lebanon are complaining about the quality of water being salty. To solve this issue, we are proposing a water desalination system to treat the brackish water extracted from the aquifers. Brackish water is water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater. A wide variety of techniques is available to solve the problem, but they all require high implementation, operations, and maintenance costs. In addition, most of them are not efficient enough to get water with a high purity level. Moreover, all systems are energy-intensive processes creating serious environmental issues. So the question is: what desalination system would be energy-efficient and cost affordable at the same time? The answer is a water desalination system based on electrodeionization technique and powered by a renewable energy. Electrodeionization (EDI) is a new technology that involves the combination of two common technologies: electrodialysis and ion exchange. As for the renewable energy, the most suitable one for Lebanon would be solar energy. In other words, the system would work using photovoltaic cells (PV cells). In this research, we will be focusing on the technical aspects of the system. Furthermore, we will compare it with previously implemented similar systems to validate that it meets the required conditions: energy efficiency and cost affordability.

Fusarium culmorum is an important pathogen of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum), durum wheat (T. turgidum), barley (Hordeum vulgare), and oat (Avena sativa) causing two major diseases worldwide: Fusarium head blight (FHB) and Fusarium crown rot (FCR) which lead to severe yield losses. Control of this plant pathogen requires the intensive and systematic use of fungicides, which cause environmental and human health problems (reprotoxicity, neurotoxicity, carcinogenicity). To fight against this plant pathogen, a potential alternative control strategy could be the use of natural compounds such as essential oils (EO). EO are complex oily liquids, volatile mixture, characterized by a strong odor and are formed by aromatic plants as secondary metabolites. They are synthetized by all plant organs where are stored in secretory cells, cavities, canals, epidermic cells or glandular trichomes. Since the Middle age, essential oils have been widely used for bactericidal, virucidal, fungicidal and insecticidal applications. Nowadays, the use of natural pesticides based on plant-EO may represent alternative crop protectants. The present study aims at evaluating antifungal activities of several EO extracted by hydrodistillation process from different plant species [angelica (roots and seeds), chives, chervil, garlic, leek, onion, shallots and thyua]. Antifungal activities of the different EO, were tested against Fusarium culmorum by two in vitro methods: direct contact (mycelial radial growth inhibition assay) and volatility assays according to Quiroga et al. (2001) and Abarca et al. (2016) respectively. These activities were assessed in the presence and in the absence of hydroxypropyl-B-cyclodextrin (HP-B-CD). CDs are cyclic oligosaccharides that complex EO and increase their bioavailabilities (Kfoury et al., 2016). Our results showed that all the tested EO presented antifungal properties against F. culmorum both by direct contact and by volatility. The IC50 obtained by direct contact were significantly lower by comparison to volatility assay with F. culmorum. IC50 vary from 0.01 to 4.2 g/l for shallots and angelica roots EO respectively by direct contact assay (IC50 shallots EO< IC50 onion EO < IC50 angelica seeds EO< IC50 chives EO < IC50 leek EO< IC50 garlic EO < IC50 chervil EO< IC50 thuya EO< IC50 angelica roots EO), whereas IC50 obtained by volatility vary from 0.08 g/l for shallots and 25.6 g/l for leek EO (IC50 shallots EO < IC50 angelica seeds EO< IC50 angelica roots EO < IC50 onion EO < IC50 chervil EO < IC50 thuya EO < IC50 chives EO< IC50 garlic EO< IC50 leek EO). On the other hand, no significant difference were obtained with the presence of HP-B-CD: shallots EO presents the minimal IC50 with 0.03 g/l and IC50 of angelica roots EO is the highest with 5.8 g/l for direct contact assay, while, IC50 for volatility assay range from 0.09 to 7.3 g/l for shallots and angelica roots EO respectively. Conclusively, the antifungal activities of EO assessed by direct contact and volatility vary depending on EO composition, in particular active ingredient content. All the EO tested in the current study could potentially be used as natural and eco-friendly fungicide against F. culmorum. Nevertheless, some EO are more efficient than others since they are more active towards the pathogen.

Aquatic plants play an important role in sustaining the purification of polluted surface water bodies. Lemna sp. (duckweed) is an aquatic macrophyte worldwide recognized for its phytoremediation capacity. Several studies have reported the occurrence of Lemna sp. in the heavily polluted Litani River, Lebanon. In this study, the physiochemical properties, heavy metals and macrophytic community composition of the aquatic habitat of Lemna sp. in Litani River were assessed. Results revealed significant spatial variations in the physicochemical properties of water at the assessed sites. The highest levels of pollution and trophic levels were recorded in Rawda, Khiara, Haouch El Harimeh and Fayda. Heavy metals also showed high levels of Cd ranging between 0.19µg/l and 2.39 µg/l in Fayda and Khiara respectively and Ni between 1.06µg/l in Fayda and 1.51 µg/l in Rawda. Lead (Pb) varied between 0.36 µg/l and 0.96 µg/l in Rawda and Haouch El Harimeh respectively, while Fe levels fluctuated between 11.6 µg/l in Rawda and 37.5 µg/l in Fayda. The macrophytic community composition in the studied sites exhibited a heterogeneous spatial distribution pattern. While the presence of Lemna minor was of low abundance and restricted to two sites only at the Ghouzeil tributary of Litani River; Lemna gibba was prevalent and highly abundant occupying almost 90% of the assessed stretches including Jebjanine constructed wetland. The Lemna gibba populations were characterized by Cladophora sp., Typha sp. and Phragmites sp. coexistence. This study shows that Lemna sp subsist over a wide range of nutrient levels and heavy metals thereby exhibiting considerable tolerance and adaptability to polluted ecosystems and the potential of a high remediation capacity of Litani River.

L'émanation continue de produits chimiques dans l'environnement, tels que les hydrocarbures aromatiques polycycliques (HAPs), est actuellement d'une préoccupation mondiale en raison de leur persistance et leur altération du cycle de vie de tous les organismes vivants. L'utilisation de la biosurveillance à l'aide d'échantillonneurs naturels reste la technique de surveillance la plus appropriée pour la caractérisation de la présence de tels produits dans l'environnement en offrant la matrice la moins coûteuse, la plus accessible et la plus simple. Dans cette étude, des échantillons de miel provenant de différentes régions du Liban ont été utilisés pour la biosurveillance environnementale de la présence de 16 HAPs. L'extraction multi résidus a été basée sur QuEChERS-SPME suivie de l'analyse par GC-MS/MS. La méthode a été développée et validée à l'aide de miel organique, puis les échantillons prélevés ont été analysés. Les résultats obtenus ont montré une contamination par les HAPs dans différentes régions du Liban nord.

Concern for public health involves evaluation of population exposure to toxicants. To do this, robust and high-throughput approaches are required to perform analyses of a large number of samples collected from subjects enrolled in cohort studies. The targeted methods commonly used enable detection of only predetermined compounds but do not search for new or unknown markers. Global approaches such as metabolomics which aim to reveal metabolic changes due to environmental stress or diseases can detect even those metabolic biomarkers that are unknown. Mass spectrometry (MS) coupled to a chromatographic separation system - especially to liquid chromatography (LC) - is one of the most often used techniques to produce metabolomic fingerprints [1]. However, the LC/MS acquisition time limits the analysis throughput. In fact, LC/MS is not really suitable to analyze a large set of samples as in epidemiological studies. Direct introduction mass spectrometry (DIMS), giving a significant reduction in analysis time to few minutes (usually less than 3 min), is more appropriate for large scale high throughput analyses such as for phenotyping large cohorts in the context of the health monitoring of populations [2]. In this approach, samples are directly injected into the mass spectrometer without prior chromatographic separation. Additionally, its combination with high resolution mass spectrometry (DI-HRMS) providing compound separation according to their accurate m/z values improves the efficiency of the DIMS approach (i.e., distinction of most isobaric species). Nevertheless, DI-HRMS generates complex data containing several thousands of peaks. Processing large set of such data requires the development of dedicated chemometric and statistical tools. Therefore, the objective of our work is to develop a global workflow including investigation of analytical conditions (i.e., sample preparation and HRMS detection parameters) to minimize matrix effects and to produce high quality metabolomic data as well as development of dedicated chemometric tools. To illustrate this metabolomic workflow, some examples performed on biological samples collected from different exposure contexts will be presented. A new chemometric tool called Independent Component - Discriminant Analysis (IC-DA) was developed for supervised data analysis [3]. A pre-processing procedure including different filtration steps was also performed before the IC-DA calculations in order to eliminate uncontrolled variance. Our study has demonstrated the high effectiveness of IC-DA to provide better discrimination of predefined groups of subjects compared to the classical Partial Least Squares - Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) method. In addition, putative annotation of discriminating variables was performed using metabolomic databases. The calculation of correlation coefficients between all variables and the discriminant variables significantly improved this step. The results obtained by the analysis of a large number of samples from several subject groups demonstrated that data generated from both the DIMS and LC/MS approaches have comparable discrimination and prediction capabilities. This study demonstrated the success of IC-DA and the feasibility of our metabolomic workflow based on DIMS approach compared to that using LC/MS. To improve the quality of DIMS data, we have extended our approach to a more powerful instrument, FT-ICR-MS equipped with a dynamically harmonized cell (Para CellTM) [4]. Such an instrument provides very high mass resolving power and high dynamic range, allowing the detection of a larger number of metabolites with highly accurate mass measurements. Additionally, ion detection at very high resolution was obtained (e.g., the [M+H]+ ions of hippuric acid was detected with a resolving power around 800,000 at m/z 180.0654 (0.5 ppm error)) thanks to the dynamically harmonized FT-ICR-MS cell. The successful discrimination of samples was observed using the supervised analysis processing. Finally, the application of our approach to a large cohort (approximately 500 individuals from an epidemiological study) is underway to demonstrate the feasibility of high throughput approach for metabolic phenotyping of large populations.

References [1] Wilson et al., HPLC-MS-based methods for the study of metabonomics, J. Chromatogr. B. 817 (2005) 67-76.doi:10.1016/j.jchromb.2004.07.045 [2] Habchi et al., How to really perform high throughput metabolomic analyses efficiently?, Trends Anal. Chem. 85 (2016) 128-139.doi:10.1016/j.trac.2016.09.005 [3] Habchi et al., An innovative chemometric method for processing Direct Introduction High Resolution Mass Spectrometry metabolomic data: Independent Component - Discriminant Analysis (IC-DA), Metabolomics (2017). doi:10.1007/s11306-017-1179-x [4] Nikolaev et al., Initial experimental characterization of a new ultra-high resolution FTICR cell with dynamic harmonization, J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 22 (2011) 1125-1133. doi:10.1007/s13361-011-0125-9

Nous présentons ici des schémas bigrilles en éléments finis pour la simulation d'EDP de réaction-diffusion, particulièrement de type champs de phase. On se donne deux espaces d'approximations en éléments finis: V h , l'espace fin et V H l'espace grossier. Les nouveaux schémas proposés reposent sur une décomposition de l'approximation de la solution u sur l'espace fin V h en partie principale ū et partie fluctuante ũ: u = ū + ũ, où ū ∈ V H est le prolongé L 2 de l'approximation. ũ ∈ V h est donc une erreur d'interpolation qui contient les modes élevés de la solution, c'est à dire des composantes de petit ordre, comparées à celles principales (u et ū) qui sont de l'ordre de la solution physique. Dans ce cadre nous introduisons des schémas à deux grilles [1] de type prédiction-correction consistant à calculer d'abord une approximation de la solution sur V H par un schéma implicite puis, après prolongation de calculer la partie fluctuante dans V h par un schéma simplifié, [4, 5]. Cette approche permet de stabiliser le schéma sur V h sans compromettre la consistance [3]. Nous appliquons cette stratégie à des problèmes de type Allen-Cahn ou Cahn Hilliard [2] et mettons en avant une réduction du temps CPU de calcul et une stabilisation plus fine de l'équation. Nous considérons différent type d'EF (P1, P 2 ). Références [1] H. Abboud, V. Girault and T. Sayah. A second order accuracy for a full discretized time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations by a two-grid scheme. Numer. Math. DOI 10. 1007/s00211-009-0251-5 [2] A. Bertozzi, S. Esedoglu, and A. Gillette. Inpainting of binary images using the Cahn- Hilliard equation. IEEE Trans. Image Proc. (2007), 285-291. [3] J.-P. Chehab and B. Costa. Multiparameter schemes for evolutionary equations. Numerical Algorithms 34: 245-257, 2003. [4] C. Calgaro, J.-P. Chehab, J. Laminie and E. Zahrouni. Séparation des échelles et schémas multiniveaux pour les équations d'ondes non-linéaires. ESAIM: Proceedings, May 2009, Vol. 27, p. 180-208. [5] M. Marion, J. Xu. Error Estimates on a New Nonlinear Galerkin Method Based on Two-Grid Finite Elements. SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis Vol. 32, No. 4 (Aug.,1995), pp. 1170-1184 [6] J. Shen, X. Yang. Numerical Approximations of Allen-Cahn and Cahn-Hilliard Equations. DCDS, Series A, (28), (2010), pp 1669-1691.

In this paper, we use the algebra of matrix theory to construct new formulas for the n^th Lucas and Fibonacci numbers. The new formulas involve matrices with integer entries. They are simple, efficient, and provide a new approach for finding many new identities, relations, and theorems.

Dans ce travail, nous nous intéressons à l'étude du comportement de l'écoulement d'un fluide incompressible à travers un milieu poreux où la viscosité dépend de la température. Nous étudions ainsi le problème de couplage de l'équation de darcy avec l'équation de la chaleur en dimension trois. Nous introduisons deux formulations variationnelles et nous dérivons l'existence des solutions correspondantes. Ensuite nous établissons l'unicité lorsque la solution est légèrement régulière avec une restriction sur les données. Les deux formulations variationnelles déjà établies sont discrétisées par des méthodes d'éléments finis pour un domaine polygonal ou polyédrique. Nous dérivons ainsi l'existence, l'unicité conditionnée, la convergence et l'estimation d'erreur a priori optimale correspondantes aux schémas discrets introduits. Nous présentons quelques expériences numériques de validation afin de confirmer la convergence des schémas linéarisés utilisés. La modélisation des gisements pétroliers est un phénomène extrêmement intéressant: principalement, pour vider des gisements presque épuisés, les ingénieurs injectent de l'eau ou de la vapeur à très forte pression au fond des puits.

Cyclic groups are groups that can be generated by one of their elements, i.e. any element in such a group can be written as a power of the generator. The most important application of cyclic groups is cryptography. The El-Gamal Cryptosystem, originally applied on 〖Z_p〗^* , can be applied on any cyclic group, and its security depends on the difficulty of the discrete logarithm problem in these groups. In 2001, El-Gamal Cryptosystem was extended to the domain of Gaussian integers, see [7]. In 2002, Chehade, El-Kassar and Zentout gave a complete characterization of quotient rings of polynomials over finite fields having a cyclic group of units, see [4]. Their results were used in 2004 to extend El-Gamal Cryptosystem to the group of units of the ring Z_p [x]/ < x^2 >; see [5]. In 2005, this cryptosystem was also extended to the group of units of Z_2 [x]/ <h_1 (x) >; where h_1 (x) is a product of irreducible polynomials, see [6]. In 2006, Chehade and El-Kassar introduced a generalization of the group of units of a finite commutative ring R with identity into the kth group of units of R, U^k (R). Since then, the generalized group of units formed a new research material. Chehade, El-Kassar and Kadri studied the cyclic and trivial properties of U^k (Zn) for some values of k, see [3, 13, 12]. In [12], Kadri gave the structure of U^k (Z(p^m )) for any k, where p is a prime integer: In 2014, El-Kassar, Haraty and Fanous applied El-Gamal Cryptosystem to U^2 (Z_n), and U^2 (Z_2 [x]/< h(x) >) for an irreducible polynomial h(x), see [11]. In our paper, we consider the problem of characterizing quotient rings of polynomials over any finite field F, F[x]/<f(x)>, having cyclic second group of units. We divide our discussion into two cases: the case when |F|=2^n, and the case when |F| is a power of an odd prime. We consider each possible form of f(x) ∈F[x], and deduce a complete characterization of the rings F[x]/<f(x)> such that U^2 (F[x]/<f(x)> ) is cyclic by examining its group decomposition, and we give its structure in each case.

In this paper, we use some extension of the Cayley-Hamilton theorem to find a family of matrices with integer entries that satisfy the non-linear Diophantine equation x^n + y^p = z^q where n, p, and q are arbitrary positive integers.

In this paper, we present a new family of matrices which can be used to determine the roots of the cubic and quartic polynomials. Using the same approach, we determine a system of non-linear equations whose solution provides complete solutions of some quintic polynomials.

The purpose of the paper is to evaluate an active method of teaching using movement activities and its impact on studying some Locus concepts for grade 7 students. The study was made in order to check if Grade 7 students, which learned through movement activities in the locus chapter, have better academic achievement and have more positive attitudes toward locus chapter than students that have got it through lecturing. The study was done in an intermediate public school in Mount - Lebanon. 45 students enrolled in grade 7 were involved and were divided into two groups; The 45 participants are distributed as follows, 22 students in grade 7 F which is group A and 23 in grade 7 D which is group B. Before the study was began, the two groups made a common pretest to examine their general academic achievement in geometry. After that, the two groups were introduced to locus chapter, which was done for group A, by making the students act as fixed and variable points with some patterns between them and finding the desired locus. The movement activities were done by using cooperative learning, in which the students are divided into groups of two, three depending on the task. In addition to a questionnaire distributed to 10 math teachers to share their experience toward locus, quantitative and qualitative tests were done to examine the influence of the movement activities on academic achievement of students and their attitudes toward Locus topic. Quantitative through a common posttest for both groups, and qualitative through a questionnaire distributed to students. The results of the qualitative test came such that the group A got higher academic achievements in Locus and made a good improvement than they were in other geometry lessons (pretest) while the second group kept the same results. And the results of the quantitative test showed that group A had more positive attitudes toward locus and the method of teaching than that of group B.

Over the past twenty years, physicists have developed techniques that allow them to deposit, in a controlled way, sequential layers of atoms in regular crystalline planes, for example using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). As a consequence it is now possible to create multilayers of metals with exotic magnetic properties. Magnetic multilayers have a panoply of practical applications: they can be used to produce devices that exploit the spin rather than the charge of the electron, inspired by the ability to adjust their magnetic properties according to technological needs and using the basic properties of the component materials and diverse multilayer structures. Recently, there has been a wide interest in the magnetic properties in the ultrathin limit.The study of transition metal (TM) multilayers, such as those involving Fe and Ni, hold great expectations underpinning the next generation of magneto-electronic devices. The Fe-Ni system, for example, presents a complex phase diagram and a rich phenomenology. Several methods to produce Fe-Ni alloys in nanometric form have been utilized: mechanicalalloying, thermal evaporation, electrodeposition amongst others. In particular, Fe1-cNic alloys were intensively studied in the past due to their unique structural, thermal and magnetic properties making them ubiquitous in technology; forinstance, the permalloy Fe0.19Ni0.81 is used for the cores of tape recorder and hard disk drive heads, in motor cases, and in magnetic resonance tomography shield covers. It also serves as a model system to analyze the effects of nanostructuring on the symmetry and dynamics of domain walls. Of equal importance isthe Fe0.5Ni0.5 alloy which, other than sharing the characteristics of the other Fe1-cNicfamily of nano-alloys, possesses a Pt-like high catalytic activity. Because of all these compelling properties, it is expected that the presence of such interfacial alloys in multilayers may become an added advantage to those systems. In this work, we use a combination of Effective Field Theory (EFT)and Mean Field Theory (MFT) to calculate single site spin correlations in multiple layered disordered Fe1-cNic nanojunctions with Co leads, c being the concentration of Ni in the Fe-Ni alloy. Due to the discussion above, we concentrate on c=0.5 and 0.81. Moreover, this information is used as the starting point for ballistic transport and spin dynamics calculations across such nanojunctions modeled employing the virtual crystal (VCA) valid in particular at the length scale of the nanojunction for submicroscopic spin wave wavelengths. The phase field matching theory (PFMT) is then applied to compute the localizedand resonant magnons in the nanojunction. The eigenvectors of some of the magnon modes are examined for certain cases to illustrate the spin precession configurations in the nanojunctions. Moreover, the VCA+PFMT method was also exploited to define the reflection and transmission spectra of the spin waves incident on the Co leads and propagating inside the nanojunction.

We realize that both nanojunctions with different Ni concentrations are ferromagnetic in nature. The properties of the sublattice Fe and Ni magnetizations are more or less the same for both systems, with no compensation temperature observed, and continues to be the same even if more layers are constructed. Also the total magnetization, which reaches saturation at some point, shows an analogous behavior.

Further results demonstrate resonance assisted maxima for the ballistic SW transmission spectra due to interactions between the incident spin waves (SW) and the nanojunction magnon modes. It is interesting to note that the reflection (R) and transmission (T) cross sections for the ballistic transport of the spin wave from Co leads at normal incidence have similar behavior for layers greater or equal then 4 with the number of frequencies at which maximum transmittance is observed, increasing as more layers are added to the nanojunctions. This is valid for both c=0.5 and c equal to 0.81 concentrations. In addition, the values of the frequencies at which T=1 are close to each other, for the two cases (c equal to 0.5, 0.81) considered in this research. For lower concentration c < 0.3, the Co leads must be replaced by Iron leads. The results are specific for bcc symmetry, to be compared with the fcc symmetry when the concentration is higher than c=0.3. Our model results are particularly valid for submicroscopic and nanometric SW wavelengths for the spin waves incident from the cobalt leads, since these are very large compared to the considered ultrathin nanojunction thicknesses.

Figures

The magnetization [1] and the magnon dispersion energies as well as the transmission and reflection [2] of the coherent spin waves across a six layers nanojunction with Co leads are shown. The spin snapshot precession of the nanojunction for one minimum energy mode is shown below. Figure

High energy SW cases can be treated using the Dyson formalism leading to a dynamics non local coherent potential approach (DNLCPA), which can be the focus of a future works.

[1] Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 423 (2017) 359-372 [2] Eur. Phys. J. B (2013) 86: 180-188

When subjected to ionizing radiation, the cells of a biological target suffer from ionization and bond breaking of their biomolecules. This leads to the production of oxidative radicals, cellular dysfunction, cancerization and eventually potential death. Since the DNA molecule is considered the most sensitive target in a cell, damages to nuclear DNA have been extensively studied in the domain of radiobiology. Mitochondria, organelles responsible for many vital processes inside the cell, are also being studied for their role in the radio-induced cellular damage. Mitochondria are small double membraned organelles inside eukaryotic cells mainly in charge of energy production among other functions such as reactive oxygen species regulation and apoptosis. Although a single mitochondrion is small in size relative to the cellular nucleus, most cells contain a network of dynamic mitochondria that could occupy up to 30% of the total cell volume. Therefore, mitochondria are highly probable candidates for radiation exposure putting them and the whole cell at risk of radiation damage. At the micrometric and nanometric scales, Monte Carlo simulation codes can be used to track the ionizing particles path and their energy deposition as they traverse the biological medium. In order to simulate the particle tracks inside mitochondria, we produce realistic phantoms based on microscopic images of mitochondrial network in single cells. The microscopic images are reconstructed into 3D tessellated objects that are successfully uploaded into Geant4. Doses and microdosimetric quantities produced by the passage of 250keV x-rays inside the volumes of the phantoms are then calculated.

We investigate the existence of ensembles of Ɛ-approximate t-designs in particular types of universal graph states known as brickwork states, and in the context of measurement based (MB) quantum computation. We show that these states form, for fixed MB angles, sources for spherical unitary Ɛ-approximate t-designs on the 2-qubit unitary group U(4). We study the scaling towards exact t-design formation of one of our MB ensembles (all measurement angles set to 𝜋/4 which showed the fastest convergence rate among the MB ensembles tested) and compare its scaling rate with that of a previously known design construction relying on randomness injected into the system from the outside. We find that our ensemble is significantly faster in its convergence. Our results imply that the intrinsic quantum randomness of a MB system can be harnessed to produce efficient t-designs and without the need for the injection of classical randomness from outside of this system.

In recent decades many researches were devoted to new man made compounds as candidates for replacing diamond in industrial applications. In so far that light elements make short bonds leading to large hardness, many compositions were proposed within the BCN diagram [1]. For instance, besides boron nitride, carbon nitride C3N4 was proposed with hardness close to diamond [2]. However the easy release and stability of molecular N2 was major drawback in synthesizing carbon nitrides with rich N content; therefore CN2 model structure was studied by us in pyrite structure to examine the mechanisms of nitrogen outbreak from carbon nitrides [3,4]. Also CNx compounds (x < 1) as C11N4 [5] as well as simpler C2N in pyrite structure [6] were theoretically devised as models for same purposes. Recently original look was cast into physics of light elements with the identification of stable ferromagnetic order in AlB2-like C2N where localized N-p states carry magnetic moment of 1.1 Bohr Magnetons (BM) [7] as well as in C2O which also exhibits strong magnetism [ 8] similar to the observed by us in well known ferromagnetic oxide used in high density recording CrO2 [9,10]. This is because as a matter of fact valence electrons of p-elements as in 1st and 2nd periods have large spatial extension and cannot let develop magnetic polarization which requires enough localization of band states. This condition is actually obeyed by transition metals of 3rd period as Mn, Fe, Co, Ni. Nevertheless ordered magnetic moments develop in CaB6 and SrB6 [11] as well as a range of open shell diazenides prepared experimentally like BaN2, SrN2, Li2N2 or Li2Ca3[N2]3 [12]. Investigations are carried out within density functional theory DFT [13, 14] with exchange-correlation effects treated by generalized gradient scheme [15]. VASP package [16] was used for geometry relaxations and search of ground states: spin degenerate NSP and spin polarized SP. The tetrahedron method was used and Brillouin-zone integrals were approximated with special k-point sampling. A large number of 300 k-points was used to perform total energy calculations. The optimization of the structural parameters was performed until the forces on the atoms were less than 0.02 eV/Å and all stress components less than 0.003 eV/Å3. {cf. review work [17] for details}. In spite of their calculated stability (negative formation enthalpy) the interest of such new newly devised materials is in their growth in layers at low temperatures over properly selected substrates for obtaining light magnetic materials for applications. Experimental investigations are underway at our CNRS Institute ICMCB within University of Bordeaux (France). REFERENCES [1] M. Mattesini, S. F. Matar, Int. J. Inorg. Materials 2001, 3, 943 and M. Mattesini Ph.D Thesis University of Bordeaux, France (2001). [2] S D. M. Teter and R. J. Hemley, Science, 1996, 271, 53 and A. Y. Liu and M. L. Cohen, Science, 1989, 245, 841 [3] R. Weihrich, V. Eyert, S.F. Matar. CHEMICAL PHYSICS LETTERS 373 (5-6): 636-641, 2003. [4] R. Weihrich, S.F. Matar, E. Betranhandy. Solid State Sciences, 5 (5): 701-703, 2003. [5] M. Mattesini, S. F. Matar, Phys. Rev. B 2002, 65, 7511010-14 [6] E. Betranhandy, S.F. Matar , DIAMOND AND RELATED MATERIALS 15 (10): 1609-1613, 2006. [7] S.F. Matar, Solid State Sci., 60, (2016) 55-58

[8] S.F. Matar, R. Weihrich, Chem. Phys. Lett. (Elsevier) In press 2017 [9] S. Matar, G. Demazeau, J. Sticht, V. Eyert, J. Kübler. J. Phys. France 2 (1992) 315 [10] S.F. Matar, G. Demazeau, Chemical Physics Letters 407 (2005) 516 [11] L. S. Dorneles, M. Venkatesan, M. Moliner, J. G. Lunney, J. M. D. Coey. Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 6379 (2004). [12] S. B. Schneider, M. Seibald, V. L. Deringer, R. P. Stoffel, R. Frankovsky, G. M. Friederichs, H. Laqua, V. Duppel, G. Jeschke, R. Dronskowski, W. Schnick, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013, 135, 44, 16668. [13] P. Hohenberg, W. Kohn, Phys Rev B 136 864 (1964); [14] W. Kohn, L.J. Sham, Phys Rev A 140 1133 (1965) [15] J. Perdew, K. Burke, M. Ernzerhof, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77 3865 (1996) [16] G. Kresse, J. Furthmüller, Phys Rev B 54 11169 (1996) [17] S.F. Matar, Prog. Solid State Chem., 41, N°3, 55-85 (2013) (account)

We employ spectroscopic and biophysical methods to explore the fundamental principles of protein folding and misfolding and to study the structures of ligand-protein complexes at atomic resolution.By engaging fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) and structure elucidation of synthetic and isolated natural organic molecules, we highlight the dynamic features to improve drug design strategies for interaction with specific target biomolecules. We have successfully incorporated liquid-state and solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in combination with Mass Spectrometry (MS), Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) and cryogenic Transmission Electron Microscopy (cryo-TEM) with a handful of the biophysical techniques Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopies with applications including the mechanisms of action of aggregation inhibitors in neurodegenerative diseases and structure determination of nucleosome-bound proteins.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is an aggressive childhood soft tissue tumor, with two distinct subtypes, embryonal (ERMS) and alveolar (ARMS) histologies. Exosomes are important intercellular communication vehicles, secreted into body fluids by multiple cell types, including tumor cells. They have been demonstrated to contribute to the metastatic progression of tumor cells through paracrine signaling. Tumor exosomes contain intact and functional protein, mRNA and miRNA that may alter the cellular environment to favor tumor growth. Thus we evaluated the protein cargo of RMS-derived exosomes and the molecular pathways they are implicated in to decipher their role in the progression of this aggressive disease. We isolated and characterized exosomes from 3 ERMS and 2 ARMS cell lines. In order to determine the protein content within these exosomes, we conducted a mass spectrometry analysis validated by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) and western blot. Results revealed the expression of 161 common proteins in all three ERMS-derived exosomes and 122 common proteins in both ARMS-derived exosomes among which 81 proteins were common to both subtypes. We, then, determined the biological processes and pathways in which the different exosomal protein cargos are involved using Panther classification system software. The 81 commonly expressed proteins include, not only exosomal markers, but also proteins involved in "cell signaling", "cell movement" and "cancer". Moreover, the pathways engaging the identified proteins revealed 37 common pathways including "integrin signaling pathway", "inflammation mediated by chemokine and cytokine signaling pathway" and "angiogenesis". These pathways may contribute to the paracrine signaling in tumor progression. Finally, the comparison of exosomal proteins of RMS cells with the datasets of exosomal proteins from other cancer cells available in Exocarta revealed that 62 proteins were specific to the RMS exosomes and were not found in other cancer exosomes. Through identifying the protein cargos of RMS-derived exosomes and the pathways involving these proteins, we were able to highlight the important role played by exosomes in cancer progression. Our results also revealed that RMS-derived exosomes may carry cell/tissue specific proteins, which may provide some new biomarkers for diagnosis and indicate exosome functions in RMS.

Neuroblastoma is a pediatric extracranial cancer affecting children in their early stages of life. It affects the sympathetic nervous system and can metastasize to reach the bone marrow, liver, and skin. MYCN is a proto-oncogene that was found in multiple copies in neuroblastoma cases with poor prognosis. We used proteomic profiling of the MYCN amplified cell line (IMR32), and the non- MYCN -amplified cell line (SK-N-SH) to determine the level of expression of various tumorigenic proteins between the two cell types. We report on a differential expression of several tumorigenic proteins between the two cell types, namely, L1CAM, HMGA1, and FABP5 found to be significantly up-regulated in the IMR32, compared to the SK-N-SH cells. In addition, the baculoviral IAP repeat containing 5 (BIRC5) also known as survivin is one of the major inhibitor of apoptosis molecules that is poorly correlated with clinical outcome in neuroblastoma, and we found it significantly over-expressed in the IMR-32 compared to the SK-N-SH cells. This is a novel finding and particularly interesting owing to the pivotal role played by these proteins on cell proliferation, survival, and metastatic behavior in various cancers. We therefore, aimed to verify the proteomics data using Western blot analysis and determine the effect of transcriptional knock-down of these three targets on cell survival, proliferation, migration and apoptosis in IMR32 cells. Western blot analysis concurred with the proteomics profiling and verified higher levels of MYCN (30 fold), FABP5 (4.5 fold), HMGA1 (1.5 fold), L1CAM (1.4 fold), and survivin (3 fold) in IMR32 compared to SK-N-SH cells. Moreover, the knockdown of MYCN by RNA interference significantly down-regulated the levels of the three other targets, suggesting an important interconnection between MYCN and the other protein targets. The effect of knockdown on the rate of proliferation was further assessed using WST1 assay. The knockdown of HMGA1 and FABP5 inhibited cellular proliferation at 24 and 48 hours post transfection. Moreover, the double knockdown of MYCN+L1CAM, MYCN+HMGA1, MYCN+FABP5, HMGA1+L1CAM, HMGA1+FABP5, and L1CAM+FABP5 dowregulated the rate of proliferation at 24 and 48 hours post-transfection. Our results not only identified new tumorigenic proteins up-regulated in the MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cells, but also revealed an interesting interplay between them that might be responsible for the aggressiveness and metastatic behavior of the MYCN amplified neuroblastoma cells, compared to the SK-N-SH.

Protein phosphorylation is a very effective post-translational modification, responsible for instantaneous control of many cellular processes. Protein kinases are implicated in metabolic pathways regulation in unicellular and multicellular organisms allowing their ability to survive changes in environmental conditions. In prokaryotes, the existence of phosphorylation (Ser/Thr/Tyr) was, for many years, a subject of debate. However, over the past two decades, research has shown that these types of phosphorylation are present in bacteria revealing the existence of serine/threonine and tyrosine kinases that are involved in the regulation of a large number of biological processes. Protein kinases having a structural resemblance to eukaryotic homologues have been found in Bacteria. In addition to that, characteristic protein kinases found exclusively in bacteria have been also discovered. This made them a potential target for antimicrobial agents. YdiB is a new bacterial protein kinase from Bacillus subtilis. Our study focused on the role of this protein kinase in the bacterial growth under oxidative stress by following the growth of the wild-type strain and in the deleted strain ∆ydiB mutant. In the presence of oxidative stress, the ∆ydiB mutant was not able to survive but in contrary a normal growth profile for Bacillus subtilis was restored after a conditional complementation. These results showed the importance of YdiB in the oxidative stress resistance. Moreover, proteins known to be implicated in the resistance to oxidative stress like superoxide dismutase F (SodF) and superoxide dismutase A (SodA) were assessed as probable substrates for YdiB. Our data provide a first evidence that SodF may be a potential substrate for YdiB thus revealing its involvement in oxidative stress resistance in Bacillus subtilis.

Chronic intermittent hypoxia (IH), the main pathogenic consequence related to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) syndrome, is responsible for cardiovascular morbidity, including systemic arterial hypertension and muscular remodeling in OSA patients. IH is produced by episodes of repeated upper airways obstruction resulting in airflow blockade (apnea) during sleep, which characterizes OSA. Intensive training (IT) wields beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system, thus we chose to examine its effect on vascular reactivity and muscular remodeling by studying the underlying signaling pathways and molecular causes, such as calcium signaling and the expression of main calcium players in smooth and skeletal muscle cells.

Our experiments were conducted on male Wistar rats aged of 2 months. Rats were randomly assigned to 4 groups: N (normoxic sedentary rats), NIT (normoxic intensively trained rats), IH (intermittently hypoxic sedentary rats) and IHIT (intermittently hypoxic intensively trained rats). IH consisted in alternating normoxia (21% O2) and hypoxia (5% O2) every 30 sec in the cages for 8 h/day during 3 weeks. Exercise training (consisting of 2 sessions of 24 min with 30 min rest between them) were conducted 5 times/week in NIT and IHIT rats during 2 weeks, on treadmill with a speed increasing from 16 m/min to 30 m/min by steps of 3 min. In each rat group, physiological parameters heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP) and hematocrit (Hm) were measured. In addition, vascular reactivity was studied in isolated aorta rings using the reference vasoactive agonists phenylephrine and acetylcholine. Also, calcium imaging was performed on cultured aortic smooth muscle cells to examine the effect of IH and IT on calcium signaling. Furthermore, we studied the expression of the main players of activation and regulation of muscle contraction mechanisms: RyR1, RyR2 RyR3, (ryanodine receptors) and TRPV4 (transient receptor potential channel), SERCA1, SERCA2 (Sarco/Endoplasmic Reticulum Ca2+ -ATPase) and IP3R1 (Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate Receptor) from different vascular (thoracic & abdominal aorta, mesenteric arteries) and skeletal muscles (gastrocnemius, soleus, plantaris). All these receptors and channels were studied at mRNA level and protein level by real-time PCR and western blotting respectively.

Our results showed that IH induced a significant increase in BP & Hm by 14% & 23% respectively and a significant decrease de ≈10% in acetylcholine-induced relaxation of aorta precontracted with phenylephrine. This is consistent with our observation that IH significantly increases the intracellular calcium level by 23% in cultured aortic smooth muscle. On the other hand, IT induces a significant decrease in HR by 13% and in aortic vasoconstriction induced by phenylephrine and endotheline-1 by 40,4% & 44.5% respectively, consistent with the observation that IT reduced the IH-N difference in calcium response.

Explanations for those changes in calcium response were investigated at the molecular level. IH induced a significant increase in the expression of RyR1, RyR2, RyR3, SERCA1, SERCA2, TRPV4 and IP3R1 at mRNA level in the tissues of all the groups, with a higher amount of RyR1 (10 fold higher in IH tissues), RyR2 (8 fold higher in IH tissues), RyR3 (7 fold higher in IH tissues) in smooth muscles (mainly in thoracic and abdominal aorta) and SERCA1 (9 fold higher in IH tissues) and SERCA2 (10 fold higher in IH tissues) in skeletal muscles (Gastrocnemius, plantaris and soleus). TRPV4 and IP3R1 had almost the same amount of expression regardless the tissue studied. Also IH induced a significant increase of RYR1, RYR2 and TRPV4 at protein level in thoracic and abdominal aorta; IT reduced the difference of expression between N and IH animals.

In conclusion, IT reduced the IH-related decrease in acetylcholine-dependent aorta relaxation, and it decreases the blood pressure, heart rate, hematocrit and the vasoconstriction of aorta, abnormally increased by IH, possibly through a change in calcium signaling pathway. Thus, our results suggest that IT could represent a promising non-pharmacological or complementary treatment to limit the IH-induced cardiovascular complications and muscular remodeling in OSA patients.

Purpose: Characterization of KIZ, a gene coding for Kizuna centrosomal protein, previously shown to be mutated in rod-cone dystrophy. Methods: We immuno-localized the mouse ortholog of KIZ (PLK1S1) in mouse retina and isolated rod photoreceptors. Subsequently, we localized KIZ in serum deprived human fibroblasts and investigated whether the compound heterozygous mutations c.52G>T, p.Glu18 and c.119_122delAACT, p.Lys40Ilefs14 in KIZ found in a patient with rod-cone dystrophy lead to cilia defects in this system by comparing monocilia length. Real time PCR experiments were performed to investigate if the mutations lead to reduced transcript levels. Results: PLK1S1 localizes at the base of the photoreceptor connecting cilium in mouse retina and in isolated mouse rod photoreceptors. Similarly, KIZ localizes also at the basal body of human fibroblasts. However, averaged monocilia length in human fibroblasts obtained from the affected individual does not statistically differ from those of a control. Interestingly, immunolocalization studies still detect KIZ in the fibroblasts of the patient. Real time PCR analysis reveals no difference in both individuals in fibroblasts. In contrast, KIZ mRNA levels in whole blood cells are 3 times lower in the affected individual compared to 3 controls. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that PLK1S1 is a ciliary protein localized at the basal body of the connecting cilium in mouse rod photoreceptors. In human patient-derived fibroblasts, the cilia length is not affected in our experimental conditions and the protein is still detected albeit the mutations predicted to lead to nonsense mediated messenger RNA decay. These findings show the limitations of fibroblasts to study the pathogenic mechanism. Future studies using induced pluripotent cells may shed light on the pathogenic mechanism of KIZ mutations leading to rod-cone dystrophy.

Inherited peripheral neuropathies (IPN) are one of the most frequent inherited causes of neurological disability characterized by extensive phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity. This group of disorders is distinguished by length-dependent progressive degeneration of the PNS. Based on clinical and electrophysiological properties, they can be subdivided into three main groups: Hereditary Motor and sensory Neuropathies (HMSN), also known as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), pure motor neuropathies (distal Hereditary Motor Neuropathies, dHMN/dCMT) and pure sensitive neuropathies (Hereditary Sensory Neuropathies, abbreviated HSN). Among IPN, CMT is the most common inherited disorder of the human peripheral nerve with a prevalence of 1 in 2500. At present, more than 100 IPN genes have been identified, of whom 60 are responsible for CMT. In this context of high heterogeneity, there is a need to develop new modeling systems for PNS diseases, to be used both as prescreening models, and, as in vitro models for the study of pathophysiological mechanisms in IPNs. To this aim, we are setting-up differentiation protocols toward generating the three cellular types composing the PNS: spinal motorneurons (sMN), Sensory neurons (DRG neurons), and Schwann cells (SC). Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) offer a unique opportunity to study human peripheral nervous system cell types affected by the inherited neuropathies, while maintaining the disease-associated genetic background of the patient. By adapting a differentiation protocol published by Maury et al. in 2015, we have successfully produced functional spinal motor neurons from control hiPSCs. We used a 30 days differentiation protocol based on early activation of the Wnt signaling, coupled to activation of the Hedgehog pathway and inhibition of Notch signaling. At differentiation day 12 (dd12), we began to observe progenitors of motor neurons (pMN), which differentiate to mature and then functional motor neurons (mMN). Immunostaining of OLIG2, a marker of motor neuron progenitors, allows monitoring the differentiation towards mature MN (dd18) and functional MN (dd30). While OLIG2 immunostaining decreases from dd12 to dd30, indicating differentiation from pMN toward mMN, immunostaining of HB9 and ISLET1, markers of mature Motor Neurons, increases with time, labeling more than 70% of cells at dd30. Immunostaining of CHAT, the choline acetyl transferase, at dd30 showed a punctate staining throughout the axon and in the axon terminal, which constitutes a signature for the functionality of our hiSPC-derived MNs. In order to further demonstrate the functionality of these MNs, whole-cell patch clamp recordings were performed at the mature MN stage (dd18) and functional MN stage (dd30). While, at dd18, recordings displayed immature response, 100 % of the recorded neurons fired trains of action potentials with the threshold, shape and magnitude characteristic of mature neurons at dday 30, in response to steps of depolarizing current injection. Finally, we have tried to build a neuromuscular junction in vitro, by co-culturing the hiSPC-derived MNs with mice (C2C12) and human myoblasts. After 7 days of co-culture, we found a nice interaction between MNs axon terminals and the nucleus of myoblasts, leading to differentiation of myoblasts into multinucleated myotubes.

In conclusion, we have successfully produced functional spinal motor neurons derived from hiPSCs. We show that our hiPSC-derived motorneuron acquire typical characteristics of functional spinal MNs, such as CHAT expression, firing of action potentials and the ability to create a neuromuscular junction in vitro. We are currently testing our differentiation protocol on hiPSC reprogrammed from Lebanese patients, affected with a pure motor form of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (dHMN), of autosomal recessive transmission, for which we have recently identified a new mutation in the VRK1 gene.

Lung and laryngeal cancers are among the prevalent human cancers worldwide and no molecular markers are presently used for predicting prognosis in these cancer. Prognostic stratification of larynx and lung cancer patients, based on molecular prognostic tumor biomarkers, would definitely lead to a better clinical management of this malignancy. Krüppel like factor 4 (KLF4) and Heat Shock Protein 27 (HSP27) play a crucial role in tumorigenesis and are considered as promising candidate biomarkers for some cancers. However, their role in larynx and lung carcinomas remains to be elucidated. In this study, we determined KLF4 and HSP27 expression profile in laryngeal and lung tumors. The protein and mRNA expression levels of KLF4 and HSP27 were evaluated by immunohistochemical and RTPCR analyses in tumor and normal tissue samples and then correlated with clinical characteristics. A differential expression of both proteins was observed between normal tissue and tumor tissue of larynx and lung. In lung tissue samples, a significant decrease of KLF4 expression was observed in the Non-Small-Cell-Lung-Carcinoma (NSCLC) when compared to normal tissue, while a significant over-expression was detected in the Small-Cell-Lung-Carcinoma (SCLC). A higher rate of KLF4 expression was observed in stages II, III and IV diseases compared to stage I in NSCLC tissues. In larynx tissue samples, the protein and mRNA expression of KLF4 were significantly decreased in larynx carcinoma tissue compared to normal tissue, while HSP27 was significantly over-expressed in tumor tissue compared to normal tissue, on both protein and mRNA levels. The KLF4 expression decreased gradually with tumor progression while HSP27 expression increased with stages. A significant difference was observed between stages I and IV. KLF4 and HSP27 present opposite functions and roles in the carcinogenic process of the larynx. The role of KLF4 and HSP27 in lung and larynx cancers initiation and progression highlights their use as potential future targets for prognosis and treatment. KLF4 and HSP27 expression level may represent potential biomarkers in patients with larynx and lung cancers.

Introduction: Inappropriate self-medication by antibiotics could result in drug misuses and serious health hazards such as bacterial resistance. Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the appropriateness of community use of antibiotics within the Lebanese population living in Lebanon. Method: It is an observational cohort study in a community-based pharmacy setting in Lebanon. It uses a structured random interview to patients visiting a community pharmacy and seeking for antibiotics. Baseline characteristics and reason for self-medication were collected from the participants. Completing a self-administered questionnaire after 10-14 days provided information on adherence. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test using spss. A multivariable logistic regression was performed to predict factors affecting appropriateness. The appropriateness of choice and duration were assessed in comparison to Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) guidelines while conformity of dosage was assessed in comparison to VIDAL. Results: 62.7%of 501participants were buying antibiotics without prescription. Amoxicillin/clavulanic acid was the most used antibiotic as self-medication (33.7%). Our study showed that 62.4% of patients have used the right antibiotic and 80.1% have used it in correct dose in comparison to VIDAL. However, the duration of treatment was inappropriate in the majority of cases (68.6%), where the majority didn't complete the full course of antibiotic or used it for low duration. When all of these three factors were summed together, it turned out that 83.6% of antibiotics were utilized inappropriately. There was statistical difference in the appropriateness between patients buying antibiotic with or without prescription regarding the drug choice (p=0.003), appropriate dose (p=0.036) and treatment duration (p=0.054).Factors affecting appropriate usage dose in comparison to VIDAL was types of antibiotic used (p=.025). Conclusion: Our study shows great misuse of antibiotics and hence there is a need to force regulations to control community use of antibiotics and to increase awareness of the health risks related to inappropriate and uncontrolled use.

Purpose: To identify BEST1 causative mutations, in two Lebanese unrelated families with autosomal recessive Bestrophinopathy (ARB). Methods: Patients were subjected to standard ophthalmic examinations including; fundus photography, optical coherence tomography, in addition to electroretinography and electro-oculography. In addition, the 11 exons of BEST1 were first amplified and then sequenced by Sanger sequencing. A detailed bioinformatic analysis was performed in order to detect the causative mutations in each patient and putative disease causing variants were tested for co-segregation. Results: Clinical examination results showed atypical ARB form in family one, while family two results were consistent with typical ARB. Two relevant variants in the BEST1 gene sequence were identified in this study: our first affected individual presented a homozygous mutation c.209A>G, p.Asp70Gly in exon 3 of BEST1, while the second affected individual presented a homozygous mutation c.830C>T, p.Thr277Met in exon 7. Our bioinformatic analysis showed that the two mutations affect highly conserved amino acid residues among different species, and that they are probably damaging and disease causing according to tools which predict the possible impact of amino acid substitution on the structure of the BEST1 protein (SIFT and Polyphen2 respectively). Finally, both mutations co-segregated with the phenotype in the two families. Conclusion: Herein, we identified the causative mutations in two Lebanese families with ARB. Whereas c.209A>G, p.Asp70Gly in BEST1 is novel, c.830C>T, p.Thr277Met in BEST1 is already known in the literature to cause ARB.

L'alginate extrait des algues brunes est un polymère biocompatible ayant différentes applications surtout dans le domaine biomédical (applications pharmaceutique, pansements pour plaies, culture de cellules…) [1]. Ce polymère est composé de deux types de monomères: acide guluronique et acide mannuronique. L'alginate de sodium, soluble dans l'eau, peut être rendu insoluble par l'ajout d'ions divalents tels que Ca2+, Cu2+, Zn2+… Ces ions se lient à la zone de l'acide guluronique. Les matériaux élaborés dans cette étude sont des films minces d'épaisseur millimétrique. La méthode d'élaboration choisie est la méthode de casting, elle consiste à verser la solution d'alginate de sodium dans un moule en plastique, la laisser sécher à air ambiant et puis retirer le film pour le plonger dans une solution contenant les ions divalents dans le but de le rendre insoluble. Ces films présentent des surfaces lisses sans pore. Afin de rendre les films plus flexibles, des plastifiants comme le PVAl et le glycérol ont été ajoutés à la solution d'alginate de sodium initiale. Les analyses SEM / AFM des films réalisés ont montré que les surfaces devenaient poreuses. Ces pores ont une largeur micrométrique. Des analyses de spectroscopie XPS ont été réalisées afin de rendre compte de l'environnement physicochimique des différents éléments présents dans les films. Ces mesures ont montré que le zinc et le cuivre dans les films étaient sous la forme d'ions Zn2+ et Cu2+ condition nécessaire pour obtenir des films antibactériens. Des tests bactériens préliminaires ont étés effectués sur les films poreux (APG(Ca), APG(Cu) et APG(Zn)) et non poreux (A(Ca), A(Cu) et A(Zn)) en utilisant deux souches médicales de références ATCC E. coli et S. auréus [2]. Ces tests consistent à étaler dans une boîte de pétri sur le milieu de culture gélifié la culture de bactéries. Il faut alors positionner le matériau au centre et après 48h d'incubation à 37ºC, mesurer le diamètre de la zone d'inhibition (figure 2). Plus le diamètre est grand, plus le matériau possède des propriétés antibactériennes.

Les résultats des différents films pour les différentes souches sont résumés dans le Tableau 1. Les films contenant des ions de calcium ne sont pas antibactériens (absence de zone d'inhibition) alors que les films contenant des ions de cuivre et de zinc le sont avec des diamètres différents. La porosité du matériau semble influer sur l'activité antibactérienne.

Mortality is the most important indicator of a country's health status. In Lebanon, little evidence on mortality and risk factors exist with lack of recent estimates from population-based studies. The availability of a 2013 baseline cross-sectional dementia study allowed the collection of mortality data on a cohort of elderly residing in Beirut, the capital, and two semi-urban and rural districts, Shouf and Aley. Out of the baseline cohort of 502 elderly (65+ years), 95% consented for follow up. Home interviews were scheduled after 3.5 years and data on health outcomes and risk factors were collected. When applicable, mortality data was obtained from informants using verbal autopsy. Preliminary data analysis was conducted using binary logistic regression. So far mortality data was collected on almost half the follow up sample (N = 233). The socio-demographic profile of this sub-sample was comparable to that of the baseline cohort. Total mortality rate was 16.3% and highest in the capital (18.4%) as compared to 10.4% in Shouf and 9.1% in Aley. There were slightly more deaths among males (17.7%) versus females (15.3%) with relatively higher death rates among the older age groups (12.8% for < 74 years vs. 23.1% for 75 to 84 years). Having chronic diabetes (vs. not) and being widowed, divorced or separated (vs. married) significantly increased the risk of death by 2.15 and 2.63 times respectively (p-values less than 0.05). The top two reported causes of deaths were cardiovascular diseases and lung problems. The elderly mortality rate based on an estimate from two geographical areas of Lebanon (Beirut and two districts of Mount Lebanon) was higher than the one reported in the most recent national summary statistics report (2012). The findings highlight the potential contribution of psychosocial and cardiovascular disease risk factors to the risk of death among Lebanese elderly. Future analysis on complete data using multivariate logistic models will bring more evidence towards the most effective type(s) of targeted interventions that would contribute to the decrease of death burden in the country. Adding to this, current efforts to expand the cohort of older adults covering the remaining governorates will give a complete picture of mortality at the national level.

The Epstein-Barr virus latent membrane protein-1 (LMP1) 30-bp deletion among healthy carriers: an analysis review of observational studies Michele Iali1, Mohamad Adnan Halabi1 1-Jinan University, Faculty of Public Health, Tripoli-Lebanon Background: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is considered to be closely associated with a number of human malignancies, in which EBV-encoded latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) was found to have an oncogenic role. However, the results published on the LMP1 polymorphism are inconsistent. In the present study, we performed an analysis review to determine the frequency of EBV LMP1 gene variant (30-bp deletion (del)) among the healthy population worldwide. Methods: Eligible articles met the inclusion/exclusion criteria and were identified in the following electronic databases: PubMed, ScienceDirect, and SciELO. Consequently, the data of interest were extracted and plotted in a table to calculate the frequency and odds ratio (OR) of the outcomes of interest (30-bp del-LMP1) in health carries. Study quality, publication bias, and heterogeneity were assessed. Results: ninety-three observational studies with a total of 4915 subjects were included in these studies, among which 2081 and 2834 individuals were placed in healthy and control groups (patients with malignancies related to EBV), respectively. The risk of bias in relation to the study quality evaluated by NOS was considered low. The pooled estimate of the frequency of 30-bp del-LMP1 in healthy carriers was 35% (confidence interval (CI): 72 to 82). A higher percentage was found in the control group 79%. Conclusions: Our results suggest an evidence that the 30-bp deletion was found less frequently in samples from healthy people than in people with malignancies. However, our data should be interpreted with caution because the sample size was small, and there was heterogeneity between the studies.

Depuis quelques dizaines d'années, le récit constitue un objet d'investigation dans plusieurs domaines de la recherche, étant la base des interactions de la vie sociale. Les capacités narratives se développent progressivement chez le tout petit, lui permettant de partager ses idées et de comprendre les évènements qui l'entourent (Boudreau, 2008 ; Kunnari et al., 2016). Grâce aux interactions avec son environnement, l'enfant développe sa phonologie, son lexique, sa morphosyntaxe, pour arriver enfin à construire un récit. Récemment, les professionnels du langage, notamment les orthophonistes, reconnaissent de plus en plus les avantages du récit, ce dernier étant un fort prédicteur des capacités langagières, scolaires, et sociales des enfants. Depuis les études de Labov et Waletzky (1967) et de Berman et Slobin (1994), les recherches visant à établir les normes développementales du récit sont plus nombreuses. En effet, les questions que suscite l'analyse des récits sont plus vastes, les enjeux sociaux et linguistiques devenant plus nombreux. Au Liban, les recherches en orthophonie concernant les aspects structurels du langage sont nombreuses et fructueuses. Toutefois, aucune étude à notre connaissance n'a pris pour objet le récit oral, bien qu'il soit considéré comme finalité de la rééducation des enfants à développement atypique du langage. Ce manque de données scientifiques et d'outils d'évaluation freine les orthophonistes dans leur prise en compte du récit dans l'évaluation et la rééducation des enfants présentant un trouble du langage. Cette recherche se propose donc d'aller au-delà des mots et de la phrase, et d'investiguer le domaine de la narration dans le but d'établir des normes développementales au Liban, en commençant par l'analyse du développement de la trame narrative globale en libanais. L'objet de cette étude est donc de comprendre comment les enfants libanais développent leur capacité à élaborer un schéma narratif et à produire par la suite un récit cohérent. Afin d'atteindre cet objectif, le livret d'images sans texte « Frog, where are you ? » (Mayer, 1969), utilisé dans un grand nombre d'études à travers le monde, a été administré à 32 enfants libanais bilingues à développement typique. Les enfants sont âgés entre 5 et 9 ans et répartis sur quatre tranches d'âge d'une année chacune. Ils ont été recrutés dans deux écoles privées francophones se situant dans la région de Beyrouth. Un test de langage oral en libanais (ELO-L, sous presse), les Matrices de Raven (évaluation des capacités cognitives non verbales), et un questionnaire parental ont de même été administrés à la population. Suite au recueil des récits des enfants et à la transcription de leurs corpus, la grille « Trame narrative » proposée par Hilaire-Debove et Durand (2008) et étalonnée en France a été remplie pour chaque enfant dans le but d'analyser les différentes composantes du schéma narratif (situation initiale, événement incitateur, tentatives de résolution du problème, résolution, et coda). Par ailleurs, comme la totalité des scores de notre grille n'ont pas une distribution normale et que la population est réduite, nous avons eu recours à des tests non-paramétriques pour l'analyse statistique effectuée grâce au logiciel SPSS 22 (Test de Kruskal-Wallis (H), Test de Mann-Whitney (U), et Test de Spearman (Rho)). L'analyse des résultats montre que les capacités des enfants libanais à produire une trame narrative globale évoluent de façon linéaire. En effet, le score global à la grille ainsi que les scores aux différentes composantes du schéma narratif augmentent significativement avec l'âge (avec H = 23,251 ; p<0,001 pour le score global), ce qui est en accord avec les données scientifiques internationales démontrant que plus les enfants grandissent, plus ils deviennent performants au niveau narratif (Kern, 1997 ; Hilaire-Debove et Durant, 2008). Toutefois, bien que les enfants appartenant à une même tranche d'âge présentent des scores globaux similaires, de grandes variabilités interindividuelles existent au niveau des sous-scores au sein d'un même groupe; Ainsi, chaque individu utilise ses propres stratégies pour raconter un récit, et il existe autant de narrations que de narrateurs (Schelstraete, 2011). En outre, les scores globaux et les sous-scores aux différentes composantes du schéma narratif obtenus par tous les enfants libanais sont proches de ceux des enfants de l'étalonnage français. Ceci a été démontré par le calcul de Z-scores propres aux résultats de notre population par rapport à l'étalonnage français. Ce résultat prouve que la trame narrative est universelle et qu'elle ne dépend pas des spécificités d'une langue donnée (Gagarina et al., 2015 ; Boerma et al., 2016). L'élaboration de la trame narrative n'est en effet pas en lien direct avec les capacités linguistiques, ce qui a été démontré par l'absence de corrélation entre les capacités des enfants au niveau narratif et leur performance au niveau du test de langage (ELO-L). Par contre, des corrélations ont été obtenues entre les résultats à la grille « Trame narrative » et « l'Indice d'exposition au récit oral et écrit » calculé à travers les données du questionnaire parental (p<0,01 ; 𝑟s= 0,502**). Ceci montre l'importance de l'exposition des enfants au récit oral et écrit dès leur bas âge pour le développement de leurs capacités narratives futures (Beaudoin, 2002). Enfin, tous les résultats précités sont en accord avec les conclusions des études étrangères obtenues à travers le recueil de récits de fiction. Nous notons toutefois une spécificité propre aux récits des enfants libanais ; Il s'agit du code-switching qui apparaît à des fréquences différentes chez les enfants mais touche surtout des substantifs bien précis qui sont généralement peu fréquents en libanais. En effet, plusieurs noms relatifs à des animaux ou à des objets ont été produits par les enfants en français. Par ailleurs, l'analyse des résultats a montré les limites de la grille « Trame narrative » qui comprend des items peu en rapport avec les composantes du schéma narratif, ce qui nous a poussé à proposer une grille réduite regroupant exclusivement les items les plus importants pour favoriser la cohérence du récit. À partir de cette grille réduite, nous avons proposé un tableau comprenant des normes développementales par tranche d'âge. Les profils narratifs obtenus peuvent constituer un repère pour les orthophonistes cliniciens facilitant leur analyse des récits des enfants libanais. Enfin, cette étude est pionnière dans le domaine de la narration en orthophonie au Liban et elle ouvre la porte à un grand nombre de futures études concernant le récit. Elle rejoint les études effectuées depuis plusieurs années concernant les différents aspects du langage et vise l'amélioration de l'évaluation et de la prise en charge du langage oral des enfants au Liban. En effet, la finalité de toute rééducation orthophonique est d'assurer un maximum d'autonomie et une meilleure intégration des enfants avec trouble du langage dans la société, ce qui ne peut être atteint que par la prise en compte du récit dans la rééducation orthophonique. Le récit est en effet le cœur même des relations sociales, étant donné qu'il « est présent dans tous les temps, dans tous les lieux, dans toutes les sociétés » (Barthes, 1966).

Background: Eating disorders (EDs) and related risk factors have become a growing area of interest for researchers, and a challenge to manage for health care practitioners. EDs were considered mainly as western culture disorders but recent studies have shown a comparable rise of EDs in the Middle Eastern countries.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to estimate the proportion of Notre Dame University (NDU) students who are at high risk of developing EDs, and to examine the association of EDs high risk with socio-demographic, lifestyle, dietary and health-related factors.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study, conducted among a random sample of 457 NDU undergraduate students who were asked to complete a self-administered survey including a food frequency questionnaire (73 food items), background questionnaire (socio-demographic and lifestyle factors), the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ)-Short Form and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Risk of developing EDs was assessed using the SCOFF questionnaire (The Sick, Control, One stone, Fat, Food). Anthropometric and body composition measurements of all subjects were obtained, using standard protocols and bioelectrical impedance analysis, respectively. Informed consent form was signed by all students prior to participation. The study protocol was approved by NDU Research Board.

Statistical Analysis: Quantitative and qualitative measurements were summarized as mean ± standard deviation/Median (Interquartile range) and n (%), respectively. Dietary patterns were identified by exploratory factor analysis. Comparisons of continuous and categorical variables were performed using independent two-sample T Test/ Mann-Whitney-U-test/Analysis of variance and the chi square test /Fisher's exact test, respectively. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: The sample consisted of 457 undergraduate students with a mean age of 21.3±1.9 years (63% males). Five dietary patterns were identified: 'Traditional Lebanese' (mainly rich in bulgur, wheat, olive oil, fruits and vegetables), 'Western fast food' (sweetened or energy drinks, mayonnaise, cake, cookies, donuts, chocolate, burgers, pizza and French fries), 'Dairy' (whole-fat dairy products and ice cream), 'Lebanese fast food' (organ meats, sausages or Makanek, Falafel and Chawarma sandwiches) and 'Fruits' (fruits, dried fruits and fresh juices). Using the SCOFF questionnaire, 146 (32.4%) students were found to be at high risk of developing EDs with a significantly higher proportion of females than males (F (40%) vs. M (28.1%), P<0.05). Significant variations across faculties were observed with the Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences (FNHS) having the highest proportion of students at high risk of EDs (FNHS (44%)).

Significant associations were observed between high risk of EDs and: frequency of eating meals while watching television during a week (watching often (37% had high risk of EDs), watching occasionally (25%) , watching rarely (36%)), excessive or lack of sleep more than half of the days (> half of the days (42% had high risk of EDs) vs. < half of the days (27%)), lack of concentration more than half of the days (> half of the days (45% had high risk of EDs) vs. < half of the days (30%)), physical activity level (low level (39% had high risk of EDs), moderate level (24%) and high level (37%)), antecedent of cardiovascular diseases (with (70% had high risk of EDs) vs. without (32%)) and positive family history of mental illness (positive (52% had high risk of EDs) vs. negative (31%)). Students who were found to be at high risk of EDs had significantly higher depression score (8.26 vs. 6.20, P=0.000), waist circumference (85.4 vs. 82.4cm, P=0.013), percentage of body fat (26.3 vs. 19.6, P=0.004), body mass index (25.6 vs. 23.9 Kg/m2, P=0.000), potassium intake (1437.9 vs. 1325.5 mg, P=0.003) and magnesium intake (151.5 vs 143 mg, P=0.04) adjusted for energy intake. They had as well lower: 'Dairy' pattern score (0.56 vs 0.73, P=0.006) and daily kilocalories intake (4172.5 vs. 4860.1, P=0.004).

Conclusion: Early detection and treatment of EDs may be improved by routinely evaluation of several specific risk factors in adolescence.

Introduction: Le carcinome hépatocellulaire (CHC) est souvent diagnostiqué à un stade avancé, stade où les options thérapeutiques sont limitées et le plus souvent palliatives. Le dépistage par échographie des cirrhotiques (surveillance tous les 6 mois) est recommandé par les experts et les sociétés savantes afin de détecter et traiter le CHC à un stade précoce. Parmi les incertitudes méthodologiques, le CHC d'intervalle (CHC découverts dans l'intervalle de temps qui sépare deux échographies) chez les patients ayant participé à un programme de dépistage n'a pas encore été pris en compte par les experts dans le cadre du CHC. L'objectif de notre étude est de comparer différents stratégies de dépistage du CHC chez des malades diagnostiqués d'une cirrhose et inclus dans un programme de surveillance (dépistage initial négatif) en regardant leur impact sur la survie globale. Matériels et méthodes: L'approche par modélisation est une option attractive pour tenir compte du CHC d'intervalle car la réalisation d'un essai randomisé contrôlé pour estimer l'incidence du CHC d'intervalle est irréalisable pour des raisons d'ordre éthiques. Un modèle de type Markov mensuel a été développé sous TreeAge® Pro pour simuler la progression des patients depuis la date de diagnostic de la cirrhose jusqu'au décès. Ce modèle a été alimenté par plusieurs types de données pour fixer les probabilités de transitions dans le modèle, et valider les sorties du modèle. L'incidence de CHC d'intervalle a été basée sur le temps séjour moyen dans un stade asymptomatique de la tumeur avant de progresser vers un stade symptomatique et sur le temps de doublement de volume de la tumeur. Le temps de séjour moyen pour un TD de 90 jours a été estimé à 1 an et 7 mois. Le modèle décrit en détail le devenir des patients diagnostiqués d'une cirrhose et inclus dans un programme de surveillance. Les patients dans notre modèle ont été divisés en plusieurs catégories. Le modèle estime la survie d'une cohorte de 1000 patients cirrhotiques en fonction de 3 stratégies de dépistage du CHC après 10 ans de suivi: S1) un délai de 3 mois (faible risque, risque intermédiaire ou risque élevé); S2) Stratégie de référence: un délai de 6 mois (faible risque, risque intermédiaire ou risque élevé); S3) un délai de 12 mois (faible risque, risque intermédiaire ou risque élevé). Résultats: Dans un contexte d'une cirrhose diagnostiquée, notre étude montre que la survie globale par CHC pour une stratégie de dépistage de: -3 mois avec un faible risque, risque intermédiaire et risque élevé d'incidence du CHC est 44,8%, 44,6% et 42,7% respectivement; -6 mois avec un faible risque, risque intermédiaire et risque élevé d'incidence du CHC est 35,0%, 34,7% et 32,5% respectivement; -12 mois avec un faible risque, risque intermédiaire et risque élevé d'incidence du CHC est 24,6%, 24,2% et 21 ,9% respectivement.

-Les Figures illustrent l'impact des différentes stratégies de dépistage sur la survie par CHC chez des malades diagnostiqués d'une cirrhose et inclus dans un programme de surveillance. Par rapport à une un délai de dépistage de 6 mois (S2): un délai de dépistage de 3 mois chez les patients à risque élevé de développer un CHC permettrait d'augmenter la survie de ses patients (S1 vs. S2, p = 0.009<0.05), mais chez les patients à faible risque et/ou risque intermédiaire un délai de 3 mois ne permettrait pas d'augmenter significativement la survie globale de ses patients élevé (S1 vs. S2, p>0.05) ; un délai de dépistage de 12 mois chez les patients à risque intermédiaire et/ou élevé de développer un CHC diminue la survie de ses patients (S3 vs. S2, p<0.05), mais chez les patients à faible risque, cette différence entre les deux scénarios est statistiquement non significative (S3 vs. S3, p>0.05). Conclusion: cette étude souligne la nécessité d'une application plus stricte des modalités de dépistage du CHC afin de diminuer l'incidence du CHC d'intervalle. Elle suggère que le dépistage par échographie chez les patients à risque élevé de développer un CHC doit être réalisé chaque 3 mois et non pas chaque 6 mois selon les recommandations internationales. Par contre, le dépistage par échographie chez les patients à faible risque de développer un CHC peut être réalisé chaque 12 mois à la place de 6 mois recommandés par les experts. Cette étude souligne la nécessité d'une application plus stricte des modalités du dépistage du CHC et les nouvelles recommandations par les experts devraient être ciblées sur le délai entre deux tests de dépistage selon le risque de développer un CHC et le temps de doublement de volumes de la tumeur.

Optimization of innovative liposomal vaccines for transcutaneous cancer vaccination

Hanadi Saliba (1), Béatrice Heurtault (1), Benoît Frisch(1), Hasnaa Bouharoun-Tayoun(2), SoulaimaChamat(2), Sylvie Fournel(1) (1) Laboratory of conception and application of bioactive molecules, UMR7199 CNRS/UNISTRA, FRANCE (2) Laboratory of immunology, Lebanese University, Fanar, LEBANON Hanadi.saliba@etu.unistra.fr; bheurtault@unistra.fr, frisch@unistra.fr, hbtayoun@ul.edu.lb, schamat@ul.edu.lb, s.fournel@unistra.fr

Cancer immunotherapy is gaining more attention thanks to a better understanding of the immune system's role in fighting tumors. Tumor vaccines are intended to induce tumor specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) via 1- activation of dendritic cells (DCs) by danger signals provided by the adjuvant, thus ensuring an optimal presentation of tumor antigens, 2- activation of CD4+ T cells following recognition of a CD4 epitope presented by the DC, iii) activation of CD8+ T cells following recognition of a CD8 epitope presented by this DC. The skin is an attractive route of antitumoral vaccination because of its richness in dendritic cells (DCs) and its capacity to induce robust CTL responses. Skin DCs internalize vaccines and migrate to draining lymph nodes where they induce a systemic immune response. They are especially endowed with the capacity to cross-present antigens to both naive CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, thus, resulting in the induction of a CTL response. Convenient targeting of skin DCs is ensured by transcutaneous (TC) vaccination. However, the skin is impermeable for conventional vaccine preparations. Therefore, peptide-based vaccines are desirable for TC vaccination because their small size facilitates their diffusion through the skin. Additionnaly, the use of various nanoparticles (liposome, transfersomes, polymers…) as peptide delivery vectors increases their skin crossing and capture by DCs and subsequently, their immunogenicity in presence of adjuvant. The laboratory of conception and application of bioactive molecules in Strasbourg developed highly versatile liposomal constructs to co-deliver all the three crucial elements for an efficient tumor specific immune response (a CD4 epitope, a CD8 epitope and an adjuvant). These constructs were shown to induce specific anti-tumor immune responses after subcutaneous injection in normal mice. The objective of this work is to optimize these constructs, to induce a potent cytotoxic anti-tumoral response, after non-invasive transcutaneous (TC) application. To meet this objective, the previously developed vaccine constructs were optimized in order to be more suitable for the TC route. These constructs express a universal CD4 epitope-containing peptide from the influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) and a CD8 epitope-containing peptide from the human ErbB2 tumor antigen, in addition to an adjuvant molecule (TLR 2/6 ligand). The optimized vaccine constructs differ by the adjuvant and the physicochemical properties of the lipid vesicle, resulting in either conventional liposomes or more flexible ones called transfersomes. Vaccinal constructs were evaluated for their immunogenicity after transcutaneous application on previously shaved dorsum of a normal mouse model. Liposomes bearing the peptides in combination with a TLR2/6 (Pam2CAG) or a TLR4 agonist (MPLA) as an adjuvant resulted in the induction of peptide-specific cellular immune response in the spleen and the lymph nodes of the immunized mice. Similar results were obtained with transfersomes, without significant changes in the amplitude or the type of the immune response. After confirming the constructs immunogenicity, their antitumoral efficacy was evaluated in BALB/c mice which were previously injected with transgenic mouse carcinoma cells expressing the human tumor antigen ErbB2 (RenCa-ErbB2). MPLA-bearing vaccine formulations, but not Pam2CAG-bearing ones, were shown to partially inhibit tumor growth, by inducing a decrease in the size of pulmonary tumor nodules. Altogether, these results show that both conventional and ultradeformable liposomal constructs are able to cross the skin barrier and to induce a cellular and antitumoral immune response. Transcutaneous vaccination with liposomal constructs represents a promising non invasive route for cancer vaccination.

The Impact of Patients' Death on Critical Care Nurses in Lebanese Hospitals

Ibrahim Horbali1, BSc, Mohammad Siblini2, MD, Iman Katergi3, MSc., Muna M. Kasti1,2, PhD 1Nursing Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Global University 2Faculty of Health Sciences, Global University, Beirut - Lebanon 3Department of Nutrition & Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Global University horbali1@gmail.com; msiblini@gu.edu.lb; ikatergi@gu.edu.lb; mkasti@gu.edu.lb

Introduction:

Nurses are often the individuals in the medical profession who develop more personal relationships with their patients owing to the frequency of contact and the intimacy of their care giving. While relationships with their patients are reported to be a very fulfilling aspect of a nursing career, this connection can also cause emotional and psychological distress when a patient dies. Some nurses experience grief responses such as fatigue, sleep disturbances, anxiety, sorrow, moodiness and difficulty concentrating after the death of their patient leading to depression. However, nursing students who have experienced the death of a close friend or family member are more able to effectively cope with the death of a patient, as they have more than likely had the chance to develop effective coping methods or solutions for dealing with mortality and grief. Since critical care nurses have shown significantly more death anxiety, burnout, and depression compared to other nurses, the aim of this pilot study was to identify the impact of patients' death on critical care nurses and to determine their depression levels.

Methods:

This qualitative research studied the direct effect of death on nurses' lives, focusing on their psychological wellbeing (i.e. depression). A questionnaire was distributed to 30 nurses (16 females and 14 males) in 3 hospitals in Beirut - Lebanon. Registered nurses (BSN, TS with LT degree) working in ICU (n=10), CCU (n=10) and ER (n=10) departments were included in this study. The Beck Depression Inventory Index (BDI scale) was used to assess depression. Data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2007. Results were statistically analyzed using chi square method.

Results:

The BDI analysis showed that 77% of the nurses had depression distributed as follows 39% were from CCU, 39% from ICU and 22% from the ER department. After further analysis of the data collected, 90% of the nurses from each of CCU and ICU departments, and 50% of the ER nurses have depression. According to gender, 56.53% females and 43.47% males were depressed. Moreover, depression rate was higher in females than males (81.25% vs.71.4%). According to the BDI scores, 50% of nurses had mild mood disturbance, 23.33% with moderate depression whereas 3.33% with severe depression. Further analysis demonstrated that 40% of ICU and ER and 70% of CCU nurses have mild mood disturbance whereas 40% of ICU, 20% of CCU and 10% of ER nurses have moderate depression. Severe depression was noticed only among ICU nurses (10%).

Conclusion:

Critical care female nurses suffered more from depression than their male counterparts, older nurses (31-60 years old) having higher rates than younger ones (20-30 years old). It is of note that there was no association between the different critical departments and depression. Depression might have an impact on nurses' lives at work or at home. It can affect their relationships with coworkers, patients and family members. In addition, it can lead to low self-esteem, inability to take care of patients, and to malpractice. Hospitals should provide continuous education and support to nurses to help them cope with death situations.

The study of cohorts, big quantitative and longitudinal studies carried out on adolescents and their parents in which the link between the parental behavior and the emotional nutrition has been identified. Thus, comments, teasing of parents about weight and frequent diets have been strongly associated with a higher Body mass index (BMI) and with hyperphagia. Girls whose parents are both overweight, have registered an uninhibited level of binge eating disorder whereas having a regular dinner within the family is less likely to initiate hyperphagia. Concerning the parental style, an authoritarian parenting, especially in the case of negligent mothers and fathers, has been associated with a higher level of BMI in the case of adolescents whereas permissive parenting predicts an inferior level of BMI. These results point out the importance of the family's behavior in the development of weight controls and weight-loss-related activities. The correlation of the eating behavior is stronger when established with the same-sex parent. Underlying problems linked to the misunderstanding of eating behaviors, to habits and comments related to weight, and to the parenting style interfere with the objective of treating obesity in the case of adolescents. CONCLUSION The family is indeed a major influence mechanism. It is necessary, though, to conduct complementary studies aiming at studying other factors than parents' eating behavior which seemingly play a crucial role in affecting the behavior and the dietary intake of adolescents. Key words: Eating behavior, Emotional nutrition; Hyperphagia; Adolescent; Family

Interest in education is interest in the future. Teacher education institutions are preparing teachers to educate students that will join tomorrow's work force. Those students are called the "digital natives" (they grew with technology being part of their daily lives). Knowing that many in-service teachers today are "digital immigrants", who have not had the same experiences with technology, it is important that constant research on the topic of equipping teachers to be tech-literate and effective integrators of technology. This study aimed at collecting information about the perceptions of Lebanese K-12 school principals and teachers regarding: the readiness of schools to integrate technology, the current technology skill levels of teachers, important technology skills for teachers of the 21st century. The researcher used a mixed method design to collect data in both qualitative and quantitative forms. The results of this study show that both teachers and principals of Lebanese schools believed that their schools were not ready to integrate technology. They were not in agreement, however, regarding the readiness of teachers to integrate technology; teachers believed they were ready to integrate technology while principals considered that teachers were not yet ready to integrate technology. The study also showed that both principals and teachers agreed that web surfing skills, word processing skills, operating system skills, and presentation skills were the most important skills for teachers of the twenty first century. As opposed to programing skills, video conferencing skills, and using school management system skills which were according to both types of participants the least important skills for teachers of the 21st century. Keywords: Educational Technology, Technology Literacy, Technology Skills, Perceptions of Technology Skills, Teachers' Technology Proficiency.

Etant conseiller pédagogique à la direction d'orientation pédagogique et scolaire au Liban, j'ai constaté d'après les visites scolaires aux écoles publiques que je supervise, que l'enseignement/apprentissage de la géométrie euclidienne plane présente un véritable défi. C'est pour cette raison que cette recherche cible les répercussions des pratiques des enseignants sur les difficultés observées chez les apprenants lors de l'enseignement/apprentissage de la géométrie euclidienne plane au cycle 3, tout en essayant de proposer des pistes de remédiations possibles et de mettre en œuvre des modes d'approche d'enseignement/apprentissage des concepts de la géométrie euclidienne plane ; approche basée sur l'intersection de deux modèles de Van Hièle et d'Alain Kuzniak où la finalité de cette intersection se trouve sur la phase de rigueur que l'apprenant devra aboutir à la fin de l'enseignement de base, et devra être assurée par l'aide efficace de l'adulte (recours à la zone proximale de développement). La méthodologie adoptée est mixte (qualitative et quantitative). Elle consiste à : - Analyser qualitativement les pratiques didactiques mobilisées par vingt-deux enseignants des mathématiques de neuf écoles publiques pendant la préparation et lors de la mise en œuvre de leur enseignement de la géométrie euclidienne plane. Cette analyse nous amène à comprendre de près les pratiques didactiques des enseignants au cycle 3. Nous avons eu recours à la didactique professionnelle (Pastré, 2002) pour garantir l'influence de ces pratiques sur l'apprentissage des apprenants. - Analyser quantitativement le résultat de la population toute entière des candidats (63467 candidats) qui ont présenté l'épreuve des mathématiques dans l'examen officiel du Brevet au Liban lors de la session ordinaire de l'année scolaire 2015- 2016, notamment l'exercice de géométrie euclidienne plane. Cette analyse nous amène à comprendre les principales difficultés à lesquelles ces candidats ont été confrontés d'une part, et d'autre part, elle nous permet de mettre le doigt sur l'influence des pratiques des enseignants sur le rendement de ces 63467 candidats en se référant au paradigme processus-produit et à a théorie de la didactique professionnelle. - Effectuer des liens entre ces deux phases de la recherche : à savoir entre l'étude locale qualitative et l'étude nationale quantitative. L'analyse des pratiques de vingt-deux enseignants de neuf écoles publiques effectuées à partir des données issues des observations de plusieurs fiches de répartitions annuelles du contenu du curriculum des mathématiques (CRDP, 1997) dans les classes concernées (de l'EB6 jusqu'à l'EB9) et de préparations quotidiennes des séances du cours (année scolaire 2015-2016), qui empruntent des concepts mathématiques dans des grilles articulant "didactique professionnelle" et "didactique des mathématiques" a permis d'une part, de mettre en évidence des régularités des pratiques enseignantes et a amené d'autre part à évaluer l'influence de ces pratiques sur le résultat voulu (ou à paraitre) chez les apprenants. Au niveau des pratiques professionnelles, nous avons détecté que les enseignants : - Ne transposent pas didactiquement le curriculum du contenu de la même façon : Ne consacrent pas le même nombre d'heures pour enseigner les chapitres traitant la géométrie euclidienne plane, ne traitent pas les chapitres par l'ordre indiqué dans les manuels scolaires officiels sachant qu'ils utilisent le même livre (collection : Construire les mathématiques) et accordent plus d'importance aux exercices qu'aux problèmes posés dans les manuels scolaires. - Ne préparent pas le cours en se basant sur des assises pédagogiques : Ne respectent pas les objectifs du curriculum, n'introduisent pas les nouvelles notions par des activités, ne s'appuient pas sur des ressources numériques. Et ne ciblent pas les activités des apprenants vers les « hauts niveaux » de pensée au sens de la taxonomie cognitive d'Anderson et Krathwohl (2001) dans leurs évaluations. Au niveau du résultat des candidats présentant l'épreuve des mathématiques du Brevet de la session 2016, nous avons trouvé que la majorité des candidats ont obtenu une note inferieure à la moyenne dans l'exercice de géométrie euclidienne plane et ont échoué dans les questions de haut niveau taxonomique au sens d'Anderson et Krathwohl (2001). Au niveau du lien possible entre le résultat des candidats et les pratiques des enseignants, nous avons trouvé que : - N'étant pas explicitement donnée dans le curriculum Libanais de Mathématiques, le nombre d'heure consacrée à l'enseignement de chaque thème (ou chapitre) dans le domaine de la géométrie euclidienne plane, dans toutes les classes concernées par cette étude, fait obstacle aux enseignants notamment dans leurs répartitions annuelles. - L'écart du nombre d'heure consacré à l'enseignement de la géométrie euclidienne plane dans les deux articulations EB6/EB7 et EB8/EB9 constitue un obstacle aux enseignants de la classe de EB6 et EB8 au niveau de la surcharge du programme à enseigner dans ces classes, dans une année scolaire. - Les méthodes d'apprentissage ainsi que les évaluations qui ne sont pas intégrées directement dans le curriculum de Mathématiques (1997) mettent les enseignants dans des difficultés au niveau de l'approche qu'il adopte dans l'évaluation des apprentissages de leurs apprenants. - Les pratiques d'enseignement constituent un obstacle à l'apprentissage de la géométrie euclidienne plane notamment lors du passage d'un niveau de la pensée géométrique, au sens donné par Van Hiele, vers le niveau qui lui est supérieur. - La non diversification des activités d'apprentissage proposées par les enseignants n'assure pas la transition, nécessaire dans la construction du raisonnement géométrique au passage vers le monde du raisonnement déductif, qui est absolument lente.

School teachers nowadays are being evaluated according to specific criteria listed by different school administrators. These criteria were stated according to different international standards of the characteristics of effective teachers. When referring to international studies, the main aspects of the characteristics of effective teachers were the effective use of professional skills such as pedagogy, subject matter knowledge, policy, and teaching styles. According to other studies, the teaching quality was evaluated only by measuring the students' achievement of the learning outcomes. According to literature, research on effective teaching highlighted the significance of the personal teacher characteristics in the teaching effectiveness. These personal teacher characteristics were described as caring, being enthusiastic, funny, humorous, friendly, supportive, and respectful. These studies were conducted in countries where educators use the results of these studies to improve the learning process. Literature showed that the main factor affecting the students' learning process was the teacher. Thus, increasing teacher's effectiveness was essential for many schools to improve the students' achievement of the learning outcomes. Enhancing students' motivation to learn increased the level of engagement of these students in the learning process and their achievement as well. Learning about the students' perceptions of the characteristics of effective teachers aided teachers in creating motivating methods of learning. The same thing should happen in our schools; students' perceptions about the characteristics of an effective teacher should be taken into consideration in improving the learning process. Unfortunately, there were no plenty of studies about the characteristics of an effective teacher in Lebanon. No proper evaluations of teacher's effectiveness were performed in schools of Lebanon. For this reason, there was a need of such a study in Lebanon to recognize the main characteristics of an effective school teacher. This research study aimed at investigating the characteristics of effective school teachers according to school teachers, students, and parents in Lebanon. This study also compared the perceptions of students, teachers, and parents regarding the characteristics of effective teachers in Lebanon, and studied whether the difference between them was statistically significant. A quantitative research study was conducted on nine schools randomly chosen in Lebanon. Three instruments were used for data collection: students' questionnaire, teachers' surveys, and parents' structured interviews. The students' questionnaire and teachers' surveys were completed by students and teachers of the nine schools respectively. The structured interviews were done to parents of students of the nine schools chosen randomly. The percentages of each criterion of an effective teacher was stated and compared to those given by literature. The results of this study showed the list of the most important characteristics of effective teachers in Lebanon according to teachers, students, and parents. The analysis of variance statistical method was used to determine whether the difference between the three perceptions was significant. These results permit teachers to modify their teaching methods allowing higher levels of students' involvement and achievement.

The choice of a sufficient condition for demonstrating that a quadrilateral is a parallelogram requires learners to know how to equip implications and equivalences implicitly. According to the lessons of the researcher and his experience in teaching, most learners show a difficulty in carrying out this work. A remediation device is then tested on two groups, following quasi-experimental research: a group work on the activities and the truncated demonstrations, followed by a projection with the Cabri software. A control group is not subjected to this device, and another control group to which the device is applied. Two tests are performed for each group: The first test after the explanation and the second test after the remediation. The collection of the results from the apprentices and the observations made in the classroom enabled the researcher to conclude that the device tested has a positive impact on the average of the apprentices and on the success rate and leads to a better quality of work in the various demonstrations.

The Teaching Diploma program at the American University of Science and Technology in Lebanon provides pre-service teachers the opportunity to improve their teaching pedagogies through seven required courses. One required course in the program is the "Educational Technology". This course focuses on the significance of technological developments and its integration in the learning process. The main objective of this course is allowing teachers to get introduced to the most advanced educational technology strategies and implement them in their active teaching methods. Special emphasis is given to the use of information communication technology (ICT) in education as students evaluate teaching and learning experiences that involve the use of high tech tool in the learning process. Using traditional methods in teaching this course leads to rote learning of the material and lack of students' (preservice teachers) ability to be active in teaching or applying the learned content in their own classrooms. Student-teachers are expected to integrate educational technology in creative approaches, collaborative strategies, projects and problems-based methods. Students in these courses are expected to get engaged in the best practices of teaching and effectively present concepts through multimedia technologies. Blended learning strategies were planned to serve the needs of these students. Blended learning is defined as the combination of traditional face to face learning and distance learning using different learning theories in the same place and supporting them with different online technologies. Blended learning allows having active and collaborative learning environments by providing asynchronous computer mediated instructions. Many international research studies showed that implementing blended learning strategies reinforces the students' active participation in the subject activities and has positive effects on the learning and process, and students' academic achievement. One blended learning strategies; flipped classroom was used to teach this course to pre-service teachers. In flipped learning environments, students are introduced to the content of the lesson by online learning instructions, and practice and discuss the content at school. The research question of this study was: Does using flipped classrooms in teaching the course: "Educational Technology" increase the students' academic achievement in solving questions requiring higher levels of thinking? The study was conducted in fall 2016 on students registered in the course: "Educational Technology". The study examined the effect of using flipped classrooms in achieving the learning outcomes of the Education course on the students' academic achievement. It was a quantitative comparative research study since the results of a group of students receiving flipped classrooms learning instructions were compared to those of students not receiving these strategies in the same course. The instruments used to collect data are evaluation rubrics and achievement tests. An evaluation rubric was designed to evaluate the students' ability to integrate educational technology in their designed lesson plans. Three achievement tests were designed to assess the students' ability to apply, analyze, elaborate, and design teaching methods according to their subject of emphasis. Each of these tests was being administered at different times throughout the course. The average of the evaluation rubrics and the achievement tests were compared to those of the group of students not receiving blended learning instructions. The statistical analysis of variance method (ANOVA) was used to check whether the differences between the two groups were statistically significant. According to the results of this study, it was shown that the students who were receiving flipped classrooms instructions scored higher on their exams than those who were learning through face to face learning strategies. In conclusion, flipped classrooms allowed postgraduate Education students to achieve higher than students receiving face to face learning instructions. Recommendations related to the teaching methods of educational technology courses are given and explained.

Un réel tsunami ou révolution numérique se déploie à une vitesse vertigineuse sur la planète et cela n'épargne aucune activité économique, sociale et culturelle. D'une manière précise, les technologies de l'information et des communications (TIC) sans oublier les réseaux sociaux transforment profondément nos habitudes de vies, nos rapports sociaux, dont l'économie du savoir. Au sujet de l'éducation, Albert Einstein disait que « c'est le rôle essentiel du professeur d'éveiller la joie de travailler et de connaître » chez les étudiants. Dans ce contexte, comment les nouvelles technologies et pédagogies d'enseignement (apprentissage à distance, apprentissage en ligne, apprentissages mobiles; M-Learning) peuvent-elles « éveiller la joie de travailler et de connaître »? Dans le cadre de cette présentation, je présenterai d'une part, les avantages de l'apprentissage en ligne (E-Learning) et l'utilisation des TIC au Canada. D'autre part, j'expliquerai l'un des principaux défis que pose l'E-Learning dans la formation universitaire des professionnels de la santé, à savoir comment créer une communauté virtuelle d'apprenants dans un contexte où la communication non verbale n'est pas présente lors d'une formation en ligne. Dans les sciences de la santé, le jugement clinique (pensée critique) et le non-verbal sont des composantes essentielles du diagnostic d'une maladie ou encore, de bien saisir l'état moral d'une personne. Comment alors transposer ses habilités professionnelles lorsque la formation est à distance - du professeur et des autres étudiants? Sachant que les universités offrent de plus en plus de cours universitaires en ligne, il est primordial de réfléchir sur les défis et enjeux que crée l'E-Learning.

Background - Closed-loop rehabilitation aims to isolate the level of the spinal cord injury after trauma by targeting the specific neural deficit from both ways, from the top, applying motor imagery and motor recruitment of foot movement (top down), and from the bottom applying long duration of stretching (bottom up).

Objective - To examine the effect of new therapeutical protocol based on the concept of closed-loop rehabilitation on motor recovery in incomplete spinal cord injury.

Methods - 20 paraplegic patients are randomly assigned into 2 groups. The conventional group receives a classic type of intervention: stretching, strengthening, neuro-muscular facilitation, the experimental group receives the closed loop protocol. Each participant received 5 sessions per week for 2 consecutive weeks. ASCIA motor and sensory assessment in addition to the frequency and intensity of voluntary attempted movement where rated at baseline, after one week, after two weeks, and after two weeks of the completion of the protocol (retention test).

Results - Analysis of variance for repeated measures (rANOVA) was used to examine the effect of the various ASIA impairment motor and sensory scores followed by the post-hoc Tukey's test revealed a high significance of p < 0.001 in the motor and sensory assessment of the experimental group, yet no significance was noted in the conventional group.

Conclusion - A closed loop rehabilitative protocol induces motor recovery by enhancing sprouting through spared axons leading to a permanent anatomical reorganization.

Rehabilitation is considered an effective stage in the process of patients' recovery after injuries. It allows patient to build again their independencies and return back to their normal life. For these purposes, various systems have been developed such as rehabilitation gaming system (RGS), computer assisted rehabilitation environment (CAREN). Most of these systems use the virtual reality. It has positive effect in minimizing recovery time. Unfortunately, such systems are not widely available in many countries especially third world country due to low incomes. Lebanon is suffering from this problem, where rehabilitation is limited to physiotherapy (exercises and activity). To overcome barriers of cost and availability in these countries, virtual reality assisted rehabilitation system (VARS) is designed. It provides rehabilitation for patients suffering from lower part injuries with as much low cost as possible. VARS is made up of virtual reality eyeglasses to provide virtual environment similar to real one, electromyogram (EMG) to ensure muscles analysis of the lower part body, 2 degree of freedom platform at which the patient will stand, tracking system and pressure sensors at the feet of patients to measure forces exerted on the ground. These data will be sent to host PC for analysis and diagnosis by the physiotherapist. The patient will have his specific gaming profile and rehabilitation gaming set by the physiotherapist depending on his state. VARS then will gather the data for diagnosis and analysis. VARS is still in the development stage. VARS is a combination of software and hardware that enables the patient to recover fast. It is available for all patients of lower part injuries by being of low cost as much as possible.

Communication is one of the major principles to deal with the surrounding environment. The communication between people who are deaf or having an impaired hearing, with everyone around is difficult. This is due to the lack of the common language between both parties. Statistics and studies done by the World Health Organization showcases that 360 million people around the world suffer from hearing loss. Hearing loss is one of the major public health issues; that is considered to be the third most common physical condition after arthritis and heart disease. Dumb people communicate with others using their body language merely; especially their hand gestures. This communication mode is said to be complex, when dumb uses their manual-visual language. Though these languages are used, however, they do not have a typical origin and hence hard to interpret. Gesture recognition is the only way used to interpret and understand sign language. It depends on perceiving and interpreting movements based on Electromyography. For this purpose, we propose a way to transform the sign language of the dumb's into an audio voice to convey their thoughts to others using Electromyography. Electromyography electrodes are utilized as a non-invasive wearable tool to provide clear, sensitive and accurate data for the muscle movement. For every movement there is a message. A database is collected for all the messages templates required. The motion sensor is placed on the dumb hand, while template database is fed into a microcontroller, in real time. Preliminary results showed that the Dumb's system is capable of providing the comparison of every single motion registered with the database to produce the speech signal, based on matching gestures. A Text To Speech conversion block circuits, provided an interpretation to match the gestures. The device is not only interpreting alphabets but also sorting words produced by gestures. Dumb is capable of speaking like a normal person when undergoing the proper training and updating the database of this system.

Biometric recognition systems provide security by identifying and verifying personnel based to either physiological or behavioral characteristics. Physiological such as face, fingerprint, iris, and behavioral characteristics like gait and keystroke. In the past three decades the analysis of Electrocardiogram (ECG) has leaped stages from being used to diagnose illnesses to most recently being used in biometrics. At present ECG is a popular research topic in the area of physiological biometrics, since the ECG varies among people due to the diversity of heart anatomy. The focus of this paper is the use of fiducial techniques of feature extraction and examination of different classifiers in identification. This paper investigates thirteen pertinent features using a public database of healthy subjects. Ten second segments were used from the recordings. The signals were filtered using a 3rd order Butterworth digital filter to remove 50 Hz power line interference and baseline wander. Pan Tompkin's algorithm was implemented for R peak identification. P-QRS-T peaks were then detected by windowing of the signal around the R-peaks. Nine temporal and four amplitude features were extracted into the feature vector. Kruskel-Wallis H test was applied to ensure that features showed inter-subject variability and intra-subject stability. Different classification methodologies were used as a comparative study to deduce the most optimum classifier for ECG biometrics. The classifiers used for identification are the support vector machines SVM, the decision trees classifier and the multi layer preceptron artificial neural networks. MLP NN gave the best results with correct classification rate 97.0% due to its extensive ability to learn complex relationships between feature vectors.

The main premise of this work is to propose a reliable methodology to detect "Falling Asleep While Driving". To detect falling asleep many parameters can be isolated, measured and analyzed. One of the most readily concept that was addressed upon during our junior year of study, is the Electrooculography (EOG). Using EOG signals, one can stick a bunch of electrodes across the eyes, these electrodes generate different potentials for different positions. The data is then passed to MATLAB software for analysis. Using signal processing tools, we should be able to detect eye movements and get an idea of the current position of the eyes based on the potential observed across them. By detecting subtle changes within the recorded data, falling asleep can be easily detected. A lot of research in this matter has already been done but although many detection and prediction devices are available on the market today, the validity of most of them needs to be demonstrated. The aim is to develop and test a model for detection and categorization of driver drowsiness by evaluating EOG data from a number of test subjects. The data were acquired using the EOG100C module system and used to simulate normal and sleepy drivers. The empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method is proposed as a signal decomposition tool, since it is useful for the analysis of natural and Non-stationary processes. EMD is proved to be adaptive and highly efficient in the analysis of such signals.

Le rôle central et déterminant de l'architecte pour intégrer la durabilité dans ces créations doit obéir à des conditions, des impératifs des standards et matière des normes de portée générale dont celle de la sécurité. Et sa véritable valeur ajoutée consiste à offrir un projet original et authentique optimisant le choix en fonction de tous les ingrédients de ses contraintes. Ainsi l'existence des normes et des standards en matière de conception et de création des ouvrages architecturaux, de type résidentiel ou non, est un prérequis, sinon il faut fédérer les efforts de tous les intervenants pour en convenir. Ordinairement, les standards et les normes en question doivent être alors couvrir l'ensemble des aspects dans ceux liés à la sécurité et tout particulièrement celles afférentes à l'incendie. Concrètement, il se trouve que parmi les préoccupations de l'architecte en matière de conception et de construction des habitats respectant l'environnement de manière pérenne, figure deux soucis concomitants: offrir un cadre de vie assurant sa durabilité et limitant les risques inhérents. Ces risques intègrent, entre autres, les différentes dimensions de sécurité dont celle liées à l'incendie. Entre durabilité et sécurité de l'édifice et de l'environnement bâti, convergent diverses préoccupations émanant des architectes, des ingénieurs, des gestionnaires de la construction et tous autres acteurs impliqués, de près ou de loin, dans la création de tel édifice durable et la gestion de l'environnement bâti. Ces préoccupations se manifestent notamment en questionnement logique suivant: «Comment un bâtiment est qualifié de durable si la sécurité incendie n'est pas prise comme un repère principal? »

The Lebanese government and organizations have been struggling with the handling of garbage to a point where it became a crisis. The landfills are overloaded. The natural environment is the preferred dumping site for the wastes. The research team visited two Lebanese landfills and collected samples of municipal waste leachates. The first site was Tripoli where two samples were collected. The first sample underwent biological treatment while the second sample was fresh from the municipal waste dumping site. The second sampling site was in Zahleh where weathered and fresh leachates samples were collected. The samples were centrifuged at 30000 rpm and the supernatant collected and filtered using micro filters before diluting it. The first dilution was 1:100. This dilution was administered to 5 groups of 10 mice via their drinking water over a 2-month period. No death or any physical or physiological changes were recorded. The second dilution was 1:10 and administered to a new group of mice for 1 month without any significant impact in exposed mice. The mice were then sacrificed and their spleen, liver and kidneys were collected. Blood samples were also taken from each group and were tested for the following enzymes Alkaline Phosphatase, GPT and GOT. Our results indicated that there was no significant impact from drinking diluted leachates for 1 month on the mice overall health and organ activity. We are currently administrating undiluted leachates to a new group of mice for two weeks and hope to detect DNA and other physiological damages at their organs and blood levels.

Phase equilibria data is required for both industrial process design and environmental assessment. In fact, the estimation of chemicals distribution in environmental ecosystems can be performed using a few thermodynamic quantities like vapor pressure, water solubility, Henry's constant and octanol water partition coefficient[1]. In this work, we present experimental and calculated water solubility and vapor pressure of an organic food contaminant, the dimethylphthalate, and a comparison between both data. Water solubility is measured using the dynamic saturation method between 298.15 and 328.15K, results ranged from 4.02 10-4 to 5.73 10-4 in mole fraction with a RSD < 1% and a good agreement with Wolfe et al. [2] value at 298.15K. Predicted water solubility using NRTL and UNIQUAC models, showed a good agreement with experimental data, in contrast with UNIFAC (original) predicted values which deviated more than 10% from experimental data but stand in the same order of magnitude (Fig. 1). For vapor pressure measurements performed by the gas saturation method, vapor pressures increased from 1.40 Pa at 313.15K to 1668.28 Pa at 423.15K with a RSD <5%. Predicted vapor pressures obtained with UNIFAC (original) model, were in the same order of magnitude as the experimental values.

L'aflatoxine B1 (AFB1) est un contaminant très fréquent des productions en zones tropicales et sub-tropicales où les conditions climatiques sont favorables au développement des moisissures qui produisent ce composé. Cette molécule, cancérigène pour l'homme représente un véritable problème de santé publique pour près de 4 milliards de personnes qui y sont régulièrement exposées. Cette toxine est produite par des espèces fongiques appartenant au genre Aspergillus et plus particulièrement à la section Flavi. Pendant longtemps, on a considéré que cette section était constituée par 3 espèces A. flavus, A. parasiticus et A. nomius. Cependant, les progrès de la biologie moléculaire appliquée aux moisissures et des approches métaboliques ont permis de montrer que cette section était en fait plus complexe et comprenait une vingtaine d'espèces dont les profils de toxinogénèse peuvent varier (production d'aflatoxines B, G et/ou d'acide cyclopiazonique). A l'heure actuelle, il n'y a que très peu de données disponibles sur la contamination des produits commercialisés au Liban quant à leur niveau de contamination par les Aspergillus de la section Flavi. L'objectif de nos travaux est de caractériser les souches d'Aspergillus de la section flavi isolées à partir de différentes épices, céréales et fruits secs commercialisées au Liban. Pour cela, 80 échantillons de 14 épices différentes ont été prélevés dans différents marchés sur la totalité du territoire libanais: cannelle, gingembre, carvi, cumin, poivre blanc, anis, coriandre, poivre libanais, curry, curcuma, poivre noir, chili, noix de muscade, bhar al kaak. Une analyse de la contamination fongique globale a été effectuée et un total de cinquante-trois souches d'Aspergillus de la section Flavi ont été isolées. En outre, 41 échantillons de céréales et de fruits secs ont été examinés, ainsi que l'isolement de 16 souches a été réalisé. Les souches ont été identifiées à la fois par analyse de leurs caractéristiques morphologiques et par analyse moléculaire. En parallèle, nous avons caractérisé leur potentiel toxinogène par HPLC. Les niveaux de contamination fongique globale observés ont été très variables en fonction de la nature des épices, des céréales et des fruits secs: Ce sont les échantillons de chili qui étaient les plus souvent contaminés par des souches d'Aspergillus de la section Flavi, devant les échantillons de Bhar Al Kaak et de poivre noir. Inversement, certaines épices (cannelle, gingembre) semblent très rarement contaminées par ces espèces fongiques. Les échantillons de maïs parmi les céréales, et les échantillons d'arachide parmi les fruits secs étaient les plus souvent contaminés. L'identification morphologique des isolats a été réalisée après culture des souches d'intérêt sur MEA pendant 7 jours et à 25°C en observant à la fois les caractéristiques macroscopiques des cultures (diamètre des colonies, couleur et organisation générale du thalle, présence de sclérotes…) et microscopiques (longueur et paroi des conidiophores, taille et forme des vésicules, nombre de séries de stérigmates, forme, taille et rugosité des spores…) ainsi que leur aspect après culture sur milieu CREA et AFPA. Ces observations ont montré que 55/69 (80%) souches pouvaient être identifiées comme des Aspergillus flavus, 7/69 (10%) comme des Aspergillus tamarii, 6/69 (9%) comme des Aspergillus flavus ayant des caractères atypiques et 1/69 (1%) comme des Aspergillus minisclerotigenes. L'identification moléculaire a été réalisée par séquençage de 3 gènes:ITS (1-2), ITS (4-5) et bêta-tubuline. Les résultats ont permis de confirmer l'identification morphologique de la plupart des souches. L'analyse du potentiel toxinogène des souches a été réalisée après dépôt d'un inoculum central quantifié sur milieu MEA puis incubation à 25°C pendant 7 jours sur milieu MEA. Ces études ont permis de montrer que plus de 83% des souches sont capables de produire une ou plusieurs mycotoxines (AFB1 mais aussi AFB2, AFG et/ou acide cyclopiazonique). Les niveaux de production observés sont très variables en fonction des souches. Le chémotype le plus fréquent est celui correspondant aux souches produisant simultanément des aflatoxines B et de l'acide cyclopiazonique qui représentent 38% des souches. Ceci est en accord avec la prédominance des Aspergillus flavus. 32% des souches testées ne produisaient que de l'acide cyclopiazonique. Enfin, la production d'aflatoxine G n'a été retrouvée que pour la souche d'Aspergillus minisclerotigenes. En conclusion, nos travaux montrent que les aliments commercialisés au Liban peuvent être contaminés par des souches toxinogènes d'Aspergillus de la section Flavi. La grande majorité des isolats correspond à des souches d'Aspergillus flavus capables de produire de l'aflatoxine B1 et/ou de l'acide cyclopiazonique. Si l'AFB1 est réglementée dans les épices et fait l'objet d'une étroite surveillance, il semblerait utile de voir si l'acide cyclopiazonique peut être retrouvé dans ce type de substrat.

Introduction. Fresh fruit juices are largely susceptible to colonization by microorganisms that are transferred to the juice during production. Microorganisms found in fruit juices are usually acid tolerant bacteria (e.g. lactic acid bacteria) and fungi (yeasts and molds) [Aneja et al. (2014)]. This colonization results in the loss of the juice cloud, development of unpleasant taste, production of CO2 and change in texture, color and appearance. Antimicrobials are added to the fruit juice to inhibit the growth of microorganisms and consequently increase the juice shelf life. Natural antimicrobials derived from plants or microflora are desired by the consumers. However, many of these molecules are known to be chemically unstable, poorly soluble in water and sensitive to light, heat and other environmental conditions. Their encapsulation into delivery systems may resolve these drawbacks and improve their antimicrobial activity. The aim of our study is to limit the microbial deterioration of fresh orange juice by adding natural antibacterial agents. Indeed, orange juice is the most consumed fruit juice in the world and constitutes an important source of functional compounds such as carotenoids, phenolic compounds (naringin, hesperetin, gallic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid) and vitamin C [Stinco et al. (2015)]. Knowing that some of the most prominent bacteria responsible for the deterioration of the juice are lactobacilli, a Lactobacillus fermentum strain was chosen as the target microorganism. L. fermentum is a gram positive, anaeorobic, acid tolerant bacteria which produces mainly lactic acid [Zheng et al. (2011)] responsible for the alteration of the organoleptic properties of the juice. Nerolidol, a naturally occurring sesquiterpene, was chosen for its antimicrobial activity reported in literature against different microorganisms including Staphylococcus aureus [Hada et al. (2003); Kazemi et al. (2013)], Bacillus cereus, Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans [Kazemi et al. (2013)]. However, the high hydrophobicity and low photostability of nerolidol limit its use [Chan et al. (2016)]. Therefore, the incorporation of nerolidol into cyclodextrin (CD) inclusion complex and drug-in-cyclodextrin-in liposome system (DCL) was considered. Cyclodextrins are cyclic oligosaccharides consisting of six (α-CD), seven (β-CD), eight (γ-CD) or more α-(1,4) linked glucopyranose subunits, capable of encapsulating a large variety of hydrophobic active molecules due to their lipophilic inner cavity. On the other hand, DCL is a system containing CD/drug complex incorporated into the aqueous phase of liposomes [Sebaaly et al. (2016); Gharib et al. (2017)]. In fact, DCL system combines the advantages offered by CDs and liposomes.

Methods. The survival of L. fermentum in orange juice was followed at 4°C using the serial dilution method. L. fermentum was inoculated at an initial concentration of 1x106 CFU/ml. The pH, Brix degree and titratable acidity of the inoculated orange juice were also monitored. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of free nerolidol was determined as the minimal concentration at which no turbidity was observed in the bacterial broth. The minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of free nerolidol in the bacterial broth was determined using the spread plate method. MIC and MBC were determined under the optimal conditions for L. fermentum growth in MRS broth (anaerobic, 37°C, 22 hours). CD/nerolidol inclusion complex was prepared and used subsequently to prepare DCL/Ner system using the ethanol injection method. The encapsulated nerolidol was added to the juice to obtain final concentrations ranging between 250 μM and 2000 μM.

Results and discussion. L. fermentum survived in orange juice stored at 4°C (96 hours). On the other hand, the three tested parameters (pH, Brix degree, titratable acidity) showed no variation, thus supporting the absence of bacterial proliferation. The MIC of nerolidol against L. fermentum in MRS was 10 μM. In fact a clear broth indicates the absence of bacterial proliferation, thus highlighting the inhibitory activity of the active agent. On the other hand, the determined MBC was 25 μM. When added to orange juice, free nerolidol had no effect on L. fermemtum after 22 hours of incubation at 4°C even at a concentration of 3500 μM. At this point, the comparison between the antimicrobial activity of the free and the encapsulated form of nerolidol in orange juice was crucial. The addition of CD/nerolidol inclusion complex and DCL/Ner to orange juice inoculated with 1x106 CFU/ml L. fermentum showed no effect after 22 hours of incubation at 4°C. However, CD/Ner inclusion complex showed an enhanced antimicrobial activity at 250 μM over time, as very low bacterial growth on agar plates was observed after 5 days of incubation, compared to drug-free control. On the other hand, DCL system showed no enhancement of the antimicrobial activity of nerolidol, possibly due to a higher retention of nerolidol in the system, thus retarding its release. Furthermore, free nerolidol showed similar results as CD/Ner inclusion complex at 2000 μM after 5 days of incubation. However, the privilege of the encapsulation system might be a more rapid bacterial kill, a lower effective concentration, in addition to a better stability of nerolidol in the juice. Therefore, further studies are needed in order to determine the efficacy of both free and encapsulated nerolidol in orange juice over time.

This paper discusses a feasibility study of municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration and suggests waste disposal through engineered landfills with energy recovery in Lebanon. A feasibility study for each technique is presented. The heating value obtained for municipal solid waste in Lebanon is between 5 and 6 MJ/kg which is low for the application of incineration. The amount of methane generated per year, if engineered landfills were installed, was calculated and a value of 209,732,285 m3/year was obtained. If this biogas were recovered with 50 % capture rate, it could provide Lebanon with 419 GWh representing 2.8 % of the annual energy demand. A life cycle assessment aiming for a comprehensive study of the environmental impact of engineered landfill was carried out. Some related parameters were calculated and the most important were: energy demand of 777,000 liters of diesel oil and GWP of 4200 kg CO2-eq. over 20 years for each ton of MSW landfilled.

Il est admis que le pourtour méditerranéen est le théâtre de modifications environnementales majeures. Du fait de son orographie particulière et de son climat méditerranéen le Liban reçoit d'importantes précipitations. Les massifs montagneux libanais jouent un rôle unique dans la distribution des précipitations qui contrôle largement "in-fine" les comportements hydrologiques de la plupart des systèmes fluviaux. Les montagnes libanaises où s'accumulent les chutes de neige hivernales, font figure de châteaux d'eau naturels, les manteaux neigeux jouent un rôle primordial de réservoir durant l'hiver et le printemps. Un changement dans le cycle saisonnier de la température pourrait se traduire par un décalage de la date de fonte et potentiellement mettre en péril l'alimentation en eau des zones avals. L'un des objectifs de recherche du projet Observe au sein de l'Observatoire Libano-Français de l'Environnement (OLIFE) consiste à approximer la date de l'étiage afin de gérer au mieux la période de sécheresse qui s'en suit. À cette fin, une doline des hauts plateaux d'Ouyoun el Simane a été choisie comme site d'observation et de mesures. Ce terrain a été équipé de nombreux capteurs environnementaux, dont une station météorologique ainsi que des caméras fixes pour une observation quotidienne du névé principal du site. L'analyse des series temporelles d'images capturées quotidiennement permet de dériver plusieurs indicateurs sur la dynamique de fonte comme la vitesse de fonte de ce dernier et son équivalent en eau afin de mieux comprendre les paramètres climatiques et topographiques qui influencent prioritairement les processus de fonte, contribuant ainsi aux estimations de fonte totale du couvert.

Les écosystèmes côtiers méditerranéens sont touchés de plus en plus par les activités anthropiques intenses (tourisme, transport maritime, aquaculture, activités industrielles) qui contaminent les bassins versants par des polluants tels que les éléments-traces métalliques (ETM) impactant les différents compartiments environnementaux (colonne d'eau, sédiment, biota). De par leur affinité pour les particules, les ETM s'accumulent dans les sédiments. Cependant, la diagénèse précoce peut influencer significativement la dynamique et la mobilité des ETM dans la colonne sédimentaire et à l'interface eau/sédiment. La baie de St-Georges - Dora, située au nord de Beyrouth, est un écosystème côtier méditerranéen soumis à des courants d'Ouest-Est et de Sud-Ouest qui contribuent à l'accumulation des déchets le long de la côte. Cette baie est exposée à de nombreuses pressions anthropiques (effluents industriels et municipaux déversés sans traitement préalable, eaux de ruissellement des zones agricoles) transportées par le fleuve du Beyrouth et/ou par des apports directs (ex. décharge). Ce fleuve possède un bassin versant de 215 km2, il est fortement urbanisé (1.94 M habitants) et pollué de sa source vers l'embouchure. Sa partie avale est canalisée avec des murs en béton pour éviter les inondations. Des carottes sédimentaires ont été prélevées face au dépotoir de Dora en septembre 2016 au niveau de 2 stations (D1 et D2), puis traitées en laboratoire sous atmosphère inerte pour séparer l'eau interstitielle de la fraction solide. Ces échantillons ont ensuite été analysés par différentes techniques pour déterminer les valeurs de pH et Eh, les concentrations en traceurs diagénétiques, les concentrations/teneurs des éléments majeurs/mineurs/traces et le taux de sédimentation. Les résultats suggèrent que la baie est fortement contaminée en éléments traces dont la mobilité est contrôlée par les processus diagénétiques.

Water is the most essential element for survival. It is known to be the vital vain of economy and social development of countries. The issue of water scarcity is influencing more and more the status of countries; with low and variable rainfall, high rates of evaporation and frequent droughts coupled with rapid population growth, all these contribute to low water resource reliability and availability. With the problem of climate change every drop of water counts, whereas 61% of the wastewater stream, which is known as greywater, can be easily recycled, is thrown away. Greywater is less polluted than Blackwater because it is generated from kitchen sinks, washing machines, dishwashers, hand-washing basins and showers. When the world knew of the importance of this source many studies and technics were made to eliminate the major pollutants and be able to use these water in irrigation, toilet flushing, washing of vehicles, infiltrate greywater into the ground and many other purposes. Different filtration systems like slow sand filtration, rapid sand filtration, roughing filter, slanted soil and many usual technics like sequencing batch reactor, up flow blanket reactor and constructed wetlands were set to see their removal efficiency. Based on biological, physical and chemical parameters, some techniques were more efficient than others. When comparing filtration methods, slanted soil technic was the most efficient. This promising treatment system consists of several chambers containing soil that can be stacked vertically. The media in these chambers have an incline of 20 degree to minimize the risk of clogging. It is a low cost, simple, energy-saving and adapted system. Some studies made in Japan concluded that this system could remove organic pollutants, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, suspended solids as well as the chemical oxygen demand and biological oxygen demand. Between the usual treatment technics constructed wetlands showed the highest percentage removal in chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand and total nitrogen. Wetlands ecosystems were used as sinks, sources or used to transform nutrients and carbon. Constructed wetlands will use wetland hydrology, soils microbes and plants to assist in treating wastewater. This man-made system is combining three mechanisms: biological by transformation of nutrients using anaerobic and aerobic bacteria and by plant root metabolism, physical by filtration and sedimentation, and chemical by absorption and decomposition that will help purify waste water. Constructed wetlands are used in small communities for its cheap and efficient water treatment. This technic is basically divided into two major group based on water flow regime: surface flow and sub-surface flow. Commonly only vertical and horizontal sub-surface flow are well studied. According to various literatures, this system has the ability to remove chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, total nitrogen and total suspended solids. From all over the world studies and researches are trying to improve greywater treatments techniques to be more efficient and cheap. Therefor finding a suitable and affordable system that can deliver both efficiency and economical value will be major step into the world of greywater treatment. In our further studies we will try to combine both slanted soil and constructed wetlands technics into one perfect treatment unit, and we aim to define the feasibility conditions of a greywater treatment unit and realize a prototype in Lebanon.

Worldwide the forest cover is decreasing. In Lebanon, 23.4% of the Lebanese total area is covered with forests (11%) and other Wooded land (12.4%) which seems to be an acceptable condition. But several studies showed that 80% of the forests are to be degraded due to many anthropic reasons. Hence, adopting scientific approaches for reforestation and afforestation projects aiming to improve the plantlets survival rate while decreasing the cost become a critical subject. This research project aims at studying the impact of a low cost irrigation system which is the deep pipes on the growth and survival rate of newly planted stone pine Pinus pinea. For this purpose, an experiment was conducted in two different sites in Lebanon; Maqné in North Bekaa and Kawkaba in Hasbaya region. The experiment was installed following a cross over design made of two randomly blocked designs (RBD) in each of the mentioned sites. Two hundred eighty eight plantlets of stone pine were divided into two subgroups: hundred forty four irrigated with surface irrigation versus hundred forty four irrigated with deep pipe irrigation. Each subgroup is divided into four water treatments (3L, 2L, 1L and 0L) and each treatment received thirty six plantlets divided into three repetitions of twelve plantlets each. The results showed that the survival rate in Kawkaba was much higher than in Maqné. More and above, in October 2016, Kawkaba plantlets irrigated through deep pipes with 3L and 2L showed a significantly higher survival rate of 44% and 33% respectively than the ones irrigated with the same water amount through surface irrigation whose survival rate average was 25% and 11% (F=12.5, p<000.1). This research project forms an important basis for continuous future research in cost reduction and irrigation methods for the success and sustainability of reforestation and afforestation projects.

Pollution presents a clear risk for humanity today resulting in various effects including global warming. Greenhouse gases are the central concern. Therefore, attempts to reduce greenhouse gases should take a clear, planned method for insuring that the most cost-efficient technologies are applied first. In this paper, the introduction of hybrid car technology to developing countries is studied as far as the economic impact and the reduction of greenhouse gases is concerned. The study analyzes the situation in different MENA countries. The savings realized by buying hybrid cars is calculated and the economic benefit, on the personal level, of buying hybrid cars is discussed along with the environmental benefits. The long term benefit of using hybrid technology is taken into consideration. It is found that, based on different scenarios, savings could reach up to 5,000 Liters of gasoline and 11 Tons of CO2 in 10 years, with payback period varying according to fuel cost, distance traveled per year and the price difference between conventional and hybrid car. People driving longer distances should expect shorter payback periods. As the fuel cost increases and the price difference between conventional and hybrid car decreases, the payback period decreases. The use of hybrid cars is reinforced by the government through rewarding buyers of low emission cars while penalizing cars with high emissions and low fuel efficiency.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a large group of persistent, ubiquitous and nonpolar contaminants. They are of important concern due to their carcinogenic and mutagenic potencies. According to the USEPA, PAHs include seven probable carcinogen to humans. Soil is a major reservoir of PAHs regarding their hydrophobic properties. Therefore soil is a good indicator of long term environmental contamination, and their monitoring is needed and essential. Ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE) is vastly used to extract PAHs from soil. It is a relatively low cost method using small volumes of organic solvents without need for elaborated glassware and instrumentation. Works realized to optimize and validate a UAE method for the analysis of PAHs in soil and sediments are presented in following paragraphs. PAHs were separated, identified and quantified using a GC/MS system. For this purpose, an Agilent 6890N GC, equipped with an Agilent 7683B autosampler and coupled to an Agilent 5973 mass spectrometer were used. One microliter of the samples was injected on the top of a HP-5MS capillary column (30m x o.25 mm x 0.25 um) in splitless mode and at 280oC. The column temperature was initially held at 40oC for 2 minutes, then raised to 280oC at 5oC/min and held at the final temperature for 5 minutes. High purity helium was used as a carrier gas at a constant flow of 1.5 mL/min. the total analysis time was 35.68 min. MS detector was operated in electronic impact mode (EI) set at 70 eV electron energy with an ion source temperature set at 230oC. Selective ion monitoring mode (SIM) mode was used and identification was based on the retention of the quantitative ions for each analyte and the relative response of mainly two other qualitative ions. Furthermore, the analytes were quantified by means of internal standard, using three different deuterated PAHs as internal standards directly added before injection. Soil obtained from a remote Lebanese area is used for this work. Optimization experiments included the test of different solvents (DCM, DCM/CAN, DCM/ACE and HEX/ACE), different volumes, different extraction times and the effect of water and alcohol. First, DCM and three other solvents mixtures: DCM/ACN, DCM/ACE and HEX/ACE, all at 1:1, v/v ratio, were tested to choose the most efficient solvent. According to recoveries comparison, DCM was chosen as an extraction solvent. Secondly, the DCM volume was optimized: 12, 16 and 20 mL were used to extract PAHs. Tested volumes do not have a noticeable effect on the extraction efficiency. Consequently 12 mL was fixed for following tests. Three different extraction times were also tested (15, 30 and 45 minutes). Most PAHs achieved maximum extraction for an extraction time of 30 minutes. The effect of the way used to add the solvent was also tested, the 12 mL were added either completely or divided to two parts of 8 and 4 mL to achieve two extraction cycles of 30 minutes each. The comparison of recoveries showed that adding the solvent in two steps produced better recoveries of most of the PAHs (14 of 17). The last test assess the effect of water and isopropanol on the extraction yields. Mixing soil with 2 mL of deionized water before adding the solvent decreased the extraction recoveries of all the PAHs, they did not exceed 60% for HMW PAHs. Similar results were obtained from another study. Water was replaced with isopropanol in another test. For the most of the tested PAHs, extraction recoveries increased and RSD values decreased efficiently. The optimized method uses then 2 mL of isopropanol and 12 mL of DCM divided to two parts of 8 and 4 mL to achieve two extraction cycles of 30 minutes each. After completion of the optimization, a validation study was carried out. The LOD, the LOQ, the linearity, the recoveries, the repeatability and the reproducibility of the method were defined. LOD and LOQ were calculated as, respectively, three and ten times the deviation (n=6) at a low level of spiking. LODs were higher than 1 ppb, whereas LOQs were higher than 3.6 ppb. The linearity of the method was studied for 5 different levels of spiking: 10, 20, 50, 75 and 100 ppb. For every level, a triplicate of samples was analyzed and blanks were realized. Linearity was evaluated as the correlation between the ratios of analyte peak areas to internal standard peak area and the ratios of analyte mass to internal standard mass. R2 values were higher than 0.995 for all PAHs. The extraction recovery varied between 79.7 and 104.1 %. The RSDs of the repeatability test were lower than 14.3 % for all PAHs and those of the reproducibility test were lower than 15 % for all PAHs.

Many studies show how quality of biodiversity in cities influences well-being of citizens. Nevertheless, little is known about the drivers that shape it in urbanized zones. Our objective was to determine the factors influencing composition and dynamics of spontaneous vegetation around street trees. The plants of 1,500 tree bases were surveyed annually from 2009 in Paris (France). An analysis of the species distribution showed how the characteristics of the tree bases and the distance to green spaces impact the species richness. The analyses of plant traits showed that the longevity of the seeds in the soil is the main trait that plays a role in the distribution of the species among tree bases. The results of a software modeling metapopulation dynamics showed that for most of the species, tree bases were sinks for source population situated in larger green spaces (e.g. parks, stations and river banks) but for some other species, they also participate to the movement of species across the city as stepping stone. The results will find applications in the definition of the best management plans for urban biodiversity preservation.

The salinity of groundwater is one of the most common global problems in coastal areas. One of the causes of salinity of groundwater is seawater intrusion which was aggravated in the south of Lebanon in recent decades. Irrigation by salty water will lead to salt accumulation, followed by soil salinity. The objective of this work, undertaken in the framework of RAS/5072/9002/01 project, supported by IAEA, was to study the performance of three genotypes of sorghum obtained from International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA, Dubai) irrigated with four increasing levels of salinity (1.95, 4, 8 and 12 dS m-1). The smallest level (or control) corresponded to the salinity of the local well while the other levels were obtained through mixing the well water with seawater. A completely randomized experimental design was conducted in LARI experimental station, located in south Lebanon, during the 2016 growing season. An equal amount of irrigation water was provided to all treatments (129 mm) before proceeding with the differential application of saline waters (168 mm). The overall performance of the forage sorgho was best at a salinity level of 4 dS m-1. The genotype ICSV745 (G3) was superior to the two others (S35 [3]=G1 and SP4487-3[5]=G2) at 8 and 12 dS m-1. Also, this genotype presented the coolest canopy temperature and the highest chlorophyll content. Significant correlations were found between the plant variables, including a negative one between the fresh weight and the canopy temperature. In the soil level the exchangeable sodium proportion, in the upper soil 0-20 cm, increased at the end of the trial from 3.7% to 20%.

Heavy metals are persistent contaminants that can cause serious environmental and health hazards. Human exposure to heavy metals and additional environmental contaminants has increased significantly over the last few decades as a result of industrialization, urbanization and other anthropogenic activities. In Lebanon, the exposure level is even higher in light of the increased pollution due to the garbage crisis. Infants are particularly susceptible to toxicity as a result of rapid growth, immaturity of kidneys, and liver and the vulnerability of the myelin central nervous system during the first year of life. Exposure of newborns to heavy metals, such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As), is of special interest due to their abundance and toxicity. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) compiled a Substance Priority List in 2015 which ranked arsenic, lead, and cadmium as the 1st, 2nd and 7th most significant potentially threatening substances to human health. Lead is a neurotoxin with potentially insidious irreversible health effects. It causes muscular weakness, fatigue and impaired muscle coordination peripherally, in addition to diminished IQ, short-term memory and hearing loss, hyperactivity and irritability centrally. Cadmium and Arsenic, well-known human carcinogens, can also affect brain development in infants. Arsenic toxicity is a global health problem affecting millions of people. Arsenic is especially dangerous for infants and young children in whom chronic arsenic exposure has been linked to lower IQ and poor intellectual function and diminished cognitive function. Human breast milk is the primary and optimal source of nutrition for neonates. Extensive studies performed on the health effects of breast milk, both in childhood and adulthood, have shown a decreased risk of various infections and inflammatory disorders, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, in addition to certain cancers. Despite being the normative standard for neonatal nutrition, concerns have risen regarding nutritional limitations of human breast milk and the presence of contaminants. Several studies have reported the presence of heavy metals in human milk. The objectives of this study were (1) to evaluate levels of Pb, Cd and As in the breast milk at 3-8 weeks postpartum and (2) to investigate the relationship between Pb, Cd and As levels in breast milk and several sociodemographic parameters. Seventy-five breast milk samples collected from primaparas during the 3rd to 8th week postpartum according to the guidelines of the World Health Organization, were analyzed for the presence of As, Cd and Pb, using microwave assisted digestion and Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). The concentrations of Pb, Cd and As in the human milk samples were determined and the findings of this study will be presented.

Real-Time Energy harvesting technology has taken the responsibility to extend the life span of embedded systems caused by the energy storage limitations in batteries. Energy harvesting have also enabled us to guarantee quasi-perpetual system operation for many wireless system applications without requiring human intervention which is usually necessary for recharging batteries in classical battery-operated systems. This issue becomes more complex when these energy-powered systems have to meet timing constraints i.e. deadlines attached to computation [1]. Hence researchers have been motivated to design energy harvesting capabilities specially dedicated to real-time embedded systems [2]. Scheduling mechanism that can adapt the performance of embedded systems to the available energy profile has been explored. Its objective is to assign real-time tasks to time slots such that all timing and energy constraints are satisfied every time. Thus, the system operates in an energy neutral mode by consuming only as much energy as harvested. ED-H, a variant of the dynamic priority scheduler EDF (Earliest Deadline First) [3] was this mechanism designed for real-time applications in a mono-processor platform that is powered by a rechargeable system. ED-H is proved to be optimal in the sense that if a task set can be scheduled by any algorithm on a platform composed of given processor, energy harvester and energy reservoir, then it can be scheduled using the ED-H algorithm on the same platform [4]. Its main principle is to permit the execution of tasks in order that no starvation can occur in the future. Our work handles the problem of hard periodic tasks and soft aperiodic tasks with irregular arrival times and no deadlines in a real-time platform powered by energy devices. The execution of an aperiodic task can affect the periodic executions. So a scheduler must be designed to provide good response times to aperiodic tasks while maintaining the schedulability for periodic tasks. The server, called TB-H (Total Bandwidth for Energy Harvesting), is a new scheduler based on the Bandwidth Preserving strategy that consists of reserving bandwidth for aperiodic utilization [5]. A first deadline is computed to each occurring aperiodic task to guarantee the timing constraints [5][6]. Then a second deadline is also computed to it to guarantee the energy constraints. Finally, a final deadline which is the maximum of the two deadlines is assigned to the aperiodic task so as to schedule it according to the ED-H algorithm together with the periodic tasks without involving energy starvation. Optimality analysis and simulation results demonstrate that TB-H is optimal in terms of aperiodic responsiveness.

It is easy to see the very long lines of the foreign refugees at the ATMs across the country at the beginning of each month. Long lines which adds the frustration on both bank clients and the helpless refugee waiting for her turn for ten days in some cases. These crucial issues can be resolved using a smarted refugee friendly ATM system, a system which would take the refugees culture and education in addition to the bank requirements in consideration to give an optimal solution for such challenge.

The retrieving of images using semantic keywords is an urgent research topic. Thus, many researches are done for image classification. There are several approaches in data mining that discover knowledge from images. The task of multi label image classification in data mining is to find a model that assigns more than one label for an image. For instance, an image can contains multiple regions where each one can be assigned to multiple labels. The Multi-Instance Multi-Label Learning (MIML) is a new type of machine learning framework proposed recently. In this framework, an image is described with many instances and can be assigned to multiple labels. The MIML is a single label learning transformation. There are 2 ways to do this transformation: The first one transforms MIML to Multi-Instance single-Label Learning (MISL) and then single-Instance single-Label Learning (SISL). The second one transforms MIML to single-Instance Multi-Label Learning (SIML) and then SISL. We are interested in this paper in the second transformation. Two most important existing techniques are proposed for this transformation (MIML-BOOST and MIML-SVM). Two limitations for these existing methods: They did not take into considerations the description of the elementary characteristics from the image and the correlation between labels. In this research, we propose a novel algorithm, which simultaneously handles these limitations. The algorithm uses the Histogram of Oriented gradients as feature descriptor. It applies the Label Priority Power-set as Multilabel transformation to solve the problem of label correlation. The scene dataset, which is a benchmark data for image multi-label, is used during the learning and recognition phase. It is a dataset of 2000 unique images that include deserts, mountains, seas, sunset, and trees labels. Four evaluation metrics are used for the performance of our method: Hamming loss, Ranking loss, average precision and one error. The experimental results show that our method is competitive in term of these evaluation metrics.

Finding information is not the only activity that exists in an Information Retrieval System. Indexing is one of the main activities. It refers to how information and user's requests from the system are represented. One of Indexing's main components is the stemming algorithm that is the removal of suffixes, prefixes or additional stop words in order to get a close root form of the words. The process is mainly used to reduce the number of terms in the system ever since many of them are transformed to a unique form. Consequently, this improves the Information Retrieval System's efficiency. Numerous stemming algorithms exist with diverse techniques such as the Porter stemming algorithm which is most widely used. This paper uses an enhanced stemming algorithm that transforms the words to their exact grammatical root forms and not close to their grammatical root form as existing technique algorithms do. The new algorithm is based on counting vowels and consonants.

L'objectif de ce travail est de mettre au point une nouvelle approche automatique pour identifier les réseaux de gènes concourant à une même fonction biologique. Différentes stratégies ont été développées pour essayer de regrouper les gènes d'un organisme selon leurs relations fonctionnelles: génétique classique et génétique moléculaire. Ici, nous allons utiliser une propriété connue des réseaux de gènes fonctionnellement liés à savoir que ces gènes sont généralement co-régulés et donc coexprimés. Cette co-régulation peut être mise en évidence par des méta-analyses de données de puces à ADN (micro-arrays) telles que Gemma ou COXPRESdb. Pour cela, nous avons tout d'abord recherché les descripteurs de réseaux discriminant au mieux les ensembles de gènes fonctionnellement liés. Ensuite, nous combinons des outils de classification supervisée et des algorithmes génétiques pour séparer un ensemble de gènes fonctionnellement liés d'un ensemble de gènes sans lien connu. Nous appliquerons cette méthode à l'étude de co-régulations en partant d'une annotation fonctionnelle connue de certains gènes.

Les coniques dans l'enseignement secondaire au Liban: conceptions et difficultés

Auteurs: - ISSA Jocelyne, Ecole doctorale des sciences humaines, Département de l'éducation-didactique des sciences, Université Libanaise, Email: joc.issa@gmail.com - Dr GREIGE Hanna, Professeur, Directeur du département de mathématiques, Université de Balamand, Email: hanna.greige@balamand.edu.lb - Dr HAYFA Nina, Professeur associé, Faculté de Pédagogie, Université Libanaise, Email: ninhay@yahoo.fr

Le présent article résume une partie de la recherche que nous menons dans le cadre de notre thèse de doctorat en didactique des mathématiques au sujet des coniques dans l'enseignement secondaire au Liban. Dans cette recherche, nous nous intéressons spécialement aux différentes conceptions émergentes à partir de la transposition didactique, dans le contexte libanais, de cet objet mathématique aussi riche en contenu qu'en registres de représentations. Nous essayons de lier ces conceptions aux difficultés rencontrées par les élèves de la classe terminale - série sciences générales. Dans un premier temps, l'analyse épistémologique de cet objet mathématique basée sur l'étude de sa genèse ainsi que les différentes modifications qu'il a subies au cours du temps, a mis en relief sa richesse aussi bien au niveau du contenu mathématique, voire spécialement ses différentes définitions, qu'au niveau de ses différents registres de représentations sémiotiques. Nous déterminons ainsi les différentes définitions de cet objet ainsi que les différents cadres et registres correspondants. Dans un deuxième temps, une analyse du programme libanais concernant cette notion ainsi qu'une analyse détaillée de deux manuels les plus utilisés dans les écoles libanaises ont permis d'émerger les différentes conceptions de l'objet « conique ». Finalement, nous avons proposé un test à un échantillon d'élèves de SG afin de mettre en relief leurs difficultés afin d'étudier leur lien avec les conceptions déjà définies. Nous présentons dans la suite les résultats des analyses des manuels et du test. Les deux manuels analysés sont le manuel national et celui de la « collection puissance » qui sont utilisés dans les établissements scolaires où nous avons passé le test. Cette analyse est faite selon trois points de vue: une analyse anthropologique au sens de Chevallard, une analyse conceptuelle au sens de Vergnaud et une analyse en termes de registres de représentations sémiotiques au sens de Duval. L'analyse anthropologique nous a permis de déterminer les différentes organisations mathématiques et didactiques proposées dans chacun des manuels. L'analyse conceptuelle nous a permis, par la suite, de déterminer deux différentes conceptions qui émergent des classes de situations proposées et détaillées dans l'organisation mathématique définie précédemment. Les deux conceptions déterminées sont les suivantes: la conception C1: « une conique est une courbe algébrique du second degré ayant des caractéristiques données: foyer, directrice, excentricité, axe focal, paramètre, sommets etc.. » et la conception C2: « une conique est un lieu géométrique de points définis par une certaine relation métrique ou géométrique (définition monofocale, bifocale, lieu des centres des cercles…..) ». Cependant, l'analyse conceptuelle nous a révélé une dominance de la conception C1 par rapport à la conception C2. L'analyse des manuels, en termes de registres, a montré une prégnance du registre algébrique dans le cadre analytique. Le test que nous avons conçu a pour objectif de mesurer la conceptualisation des élèves de la SG relativement à l'objet « conique ». Il est formé de 19 tâches réparties en trois parties dont les objectifs sont respectivement: reconnaître l'objet conique dans les différents cadres et registres demandés, manipuler et convertir les coniques dans les différents cadres et registres et résoudre un problème de conique dans le cadre géométrique. Notons que pour réussir cette dernière tâche problématique, l'élève doit certainement mobiliser la conception C2 dont l'émergence n'est pas trop favorisée dans les manuels. Le test a été passé à 331 élèves dans 25 classes différentes de 25 établissements différents, publiques et privés, pendant des séances de 100 minutes chacune. Les résultats montrent que les élèves réussissent majoritairement les tâches qui mobilisent la conception C1 reposant surtout sur les types de conversion à partir du registre algébrique et par suite sur la mémorisation de certaines formules relatives à l'équation algébrique de la conique. Cependant, lorsqu'il s'agit de certaines conversions à partir du registre métrique, c'est-à-dire de la mobilisation de la conception C2 en dehors de toute manipulation algébrique des coniques, ils n'ont pas pu réussir les tâches correspondantes. D'autre part, une forte corrélation positive a été déterminée entre la réussite aux tâches de conversion et à celle du problème. Ceci montre l'importance des activités de conversion dans le développement du raisonnement chez l'élève et par suite dans la réussite à la résolution de problème qui est en lui-même un des objectifs fondamentaux de l'apprentissage des mathématiques. Finalement, cette recherche apporte quelques éléments intéressants à ceux qui s'intéressent à la recherche en didactique des mathématiques notamment à l'étude des coniques qui n'a pas été traité, jusqu'à présent, d'une manière approfondie.

The fields of knowledge are not only interdependent, but also interrelated. An evident example of such a fact is the flourishing of pluridisciplinary studies. Two particular fields of study that call for clarifying and identifying the relation they establish are linguistics and translation. Chomsky (1980: 11) maintains that the "central task of descriptive linguistics is to construct grammars of specific languages" and Newmark (1988: 39) sustains that "any translation is an exercise in applied linguistics". Taking the two perspectives, linguistic courses and in specific, grammar courses, seem a must to translators-to-be. Considering the Lebanese higher educational system as an example, translators-to-be take some compulsory linguistic courses in NL (Native Language) and TL (Target Language) as requirements of the BA degree (Bachelor of Arts) in translation and have the freedom to choose other elective courses which are of linguistic nature. Following the descriptive approach, I reviewed the courses that translators-to-be take at the public university, The Lebanese University, and at three private universities, namely The American University of Beirut, AUB, The Lebanese International University, LIU, and The American University of Science and Technology, AUST. The percentage of linguistic courses in the curriculum of the translation major ranges from 5 courses on the contract sheet to 8 courses out of roughly 35 courses over 3 years following the LMD system. Among the common courses in these universities are "Grammar" and "Introduction to Linguistics", the latter investigates areas related to syntax, phonology, semantics, pragmatics, and morphology, to name a few, in TL mainly, which is English. The perspective of translators-to-be towards such a course is explored through a questionnaire filled anonymously. Despite the difficulty they have faced with this new realm, their responses fluctuated as to the importance of linguistics and grammar to their major and eventually its practice on one hand, and the importance of one field in linguistics rather than another on the other.

Many Lebanese university students in science classes face difficulty in writing reports. Since their high-school days, their focus has been usually on science content, but not on the process-writing itself. In a similar vein, research reveals that professors at Harvard University realized this problem. However, EFL pedagogy nowadays is leaning towards integration of Internet technology and authenticity of content material in language instruction. So based on this approach, the aim of this study is to show how integration of Internet technology, contemporary pedagogical theories and authentic scientific materials can motivate EFL Lebanese learners to develop report writing through the implementation of process-writing techniques. An action research is carried on a group of Lebanese grade 8 science class learners (n=25). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework is adopted following Koehler & Mishra (2009) to investigate the impact of integrating these domains on writing scientific reports, through application of process-writing techniques (see the figure in Appendix A). The technological domain employed the Google+ for its large set of functionalities and for its use as an instructional and motivating platform. As Cavazza (2012) discussed, Google+ enables the users to share, publish, play and network on its platform. In addition, the administrator can: (a) form a private group by sending numerous membership invitations, (b) post instructional material easily in rich-text posts as, fonts, colors, images, PPT and videos. Moreover, to reinforce collective communication among learners, members can like the posts by adding +1, and discuss the posts either with the administrator or with each other on the dashboard. With ease of access to Google+ Group on both platforms: Android™ and Apple® iOS and the facile access of teachers to on-line activities, one can just point any mobile browser to: https://groups.google.com/forum/m/. The pedagogical domain that requires an understanding of cognitive, social, and developmental theories of learning is based on Vygotskian constructivist approach: while learners work in groups on Google+ platform, the instructor applies procedural scaffolding approach (e.g. modeling, sharing, rehearsing, applying) implementing the writing-process techniques (from prewriting to final posting on Google+ platform. Initially the researcher models authentic science reports corresponding with the theme of the month in their syllabus, by posting them on the Google+ platform. Then to share knowledge, she raises questions about the structure and the language features of that report, then leads the group to online synchronic discussions at different stages of the writing-process. Metacognitive strategies as self-questioning, reflecting and inferring raise awareness of one's own cognition as Brown (2007) drew. At the rehearsing stage, the researcher asks the learners to write a new report following another science project, but at this time she supplies them with guidelines for writing scientific reports and scaffolds their production. Finally, the learners apply the constructed knowledge and write a science report independently and share it with peers by posting it on the Google+ platform. The integration of the authentic content material is meant to expose the students to what they actually experience in real life situations. As Lowe (2010) drew, exposure to authentic material can make the task more interesting and motivating, and it helps learners develop their own strategies for dealing with real language. Lowe adds that the use of online authentic materials frequently supply learners with up to date information that can be of extensive educational value. Data collection instruments that will be used in this study are: (a) interviews with instructor and students (before and after the intervention); (b) samples from the students' reports written during different intervals; and (c) the students' scores on the reports as evaluated by their instructor. The aim of selecting these instruments is to compare how the students developed their report writing during the intervention. A process-writing rubric will be used to evaluate the reports and as assigned by the school, results will be categorized into different levels (A, B, C, D, F) (see Appendix B "Grading Scale"). It is essential to mention that samples of reports from each category will be chosen randomly and textual analysis will be applied to find out how each of the students from the different categories developed their report writing. The results are expected to reveal that integration of Internet technology, contemporary pedagogical theories and scientific authentic material following TPACK can motivate and contribute to the development of scientific report writing of the Lebanese grade 8 learners in science classes. Suggestions and recommendations for further research will be shared.

N.B. Since this is an abstract I have attached three Appendices, Appendix A "The TPACK framework figure", Appendix B "Grading Scale", Appendix C "Bibliography".

Appendix A: The TPACK framework figure

http://blogs.ubc.ca/rhoglund533efolio/files/2012/03/Tpack-contexts.jpg

Figure 1. The TPACK framework and its components (adopted from Koehler, 2009).

Appendix B: Grading Scale

Table 1: Grading Scale in Lebanon (adapted from Baumbach, 2011, p. 5) ____ Grade Percent Score Description ____ A 100 to 90% 20.0 to 18 Excellent B 89 to 80% 17.9 to 15 Above Average C 79 to 70% 15.9 to 12 Satisfactory D 69 to 60% 11.9 to 10 Below Average F 0 to 59% 9.9 to 0.0 Fail ------------------------------------------------

Appendix C: Bibliography

Baumbach, K. (2011). Online Guide to Educational Systems Around the World. NAFSA: Association of International Educators. Retrieved December 22, 2016, from https://www.nafsa.org Brown, H.D. (2007). Principles Of Language Learning And Teaching (5th ed.). San Francisco State University: Pearson Longman (ISBN: 0-13-199128-0) Cavazza, F. (2012). Social Media Landscape 2012. Retrieved June 30, 2014, from http://www.fredcavazza.net/2012/02/22/social-media-landscape-2012/ Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K. (2005). Research Methods in Education (5th ed.) USA and Canada: Routledge Falmer (ISBN: 0-203-22446-9) Elżbieta Danuta Lesiak-Bielawska (2015). English for Specific Purposes World (ISSN: 1682-3257) www.esp-world.info, Issue 48, v.16, 2015 Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60-70. Kothari, C.R. (2004). Research Methodology: Methods and techniques. India: New Age Pub. (ISBN 13: 978-81-224-2488-1) Lowe, I. (2010). Authentic lesson material in ESP. Retrieved 24 Feb, 2017, from http://www.scientificlanguage.com/esp/authentic.pdf Mariott, R. & Torres, P. (2009). Handbook of Research on E-Learning Methodologies for Language Acquisition. NY: Information Science Reference (ISBN: 978-1-59904-995-3 e-book) Morris, J. et al. (2007). A Student's Guide to Writing in the Life Sciences. Harvard http://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/hwp/files/life_sciences.pdf Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. (2014). Longman Academic Writing Series 3: Paragraphs to Essays (4th ed.). USA: Pearson Inc. Shin, D. (2016). Disciplinary language development in writing: Science reports and common core state standards. In Oliveira, L. & Silva, T. (Eds.), Second Language Writing In Elementary Classrooms: Instructional Issues, Content-area Writing and Teacher Education. USA: Palgrave McMillan (ISBN: 978-1-349-70865-9) Vaičiūnienė, V. & Užpalienė, D. (2010). Authentic Resources in Technology-based ESP Learning. Studies About Languages. 2010. NO. 17 (ISSN 1648- 2824) KALBŲ STUDIJOS

Planning law and regulations has long been considered as the task entrusted by the government institutions that allows providing an equitable planning framework aiming public interest. However, in the context of globalization, the private sector is playing a growing role in the urban development and planning. This role is not only financial; and not limited to specific projects. It is the case also in the developing countries, where the withdrawal of the State and its reluctant performance is accompanied by the rise of new planning actors through the State delegating of public tasks to the private sector.

Dominated by sectarianism and neoliberal urban policies, Lebanon presents a good laboratory to investigate this topic, where the rise of new planning actors; the private sector (real estate developers and private firms under the authority of political parties), are witnessed, showing expertise in the field of town planning and planning. This paper examines the multi-scaled planning regulations and tools in Lebanon by differentiating between the state planning that provides administrative institutional planning framework and the "private" planning that provides another type of institutional framework. The paper shows the institutional administrative framework as out-dated, incapable of responding to the evolving cities' needs, static and plagued with bureaucratic inefficiency. This situation fosters the rise of the so-called "corporate" planning, an alternative 'flexible' planning related to the private sector intervention. The paper argues that in between these two practices, the rise of new territories within the national territory is being witnessed, governed by unions of municipalities. These territories are still under construction while rethinking their own planning tools. However, the practice of the latter goes beyond the ubiquitous statutory, regulatory logic and incorporates elements of political, sectarian and communitarian logics. The paper shows that unions of municipalities as new institutional actors and spatial entities, back boned by their political and communitarian powers, are bypassing the entire regulatory planning system provided by the central State. Hence, based on negotiations and (in)formal alliances, they are using their own planning tools and regulations in order to manage and develop their territories. Hence, planning in Lebanon is not only performed by administrative authorities working on defined territorial boundaries using regulatory planning regulations, tools, methods and know-how. New territories, governed by unions of municipalities, are being emerged regulated by specific planning tools and laws. Unions of municipalities are still under construction showing a growing role as the new arena for development while trying to reconstruct the local territory as a response to the Lebanese planning crisis; Lebanon witnesses a minimal State intervention where its political economy could be best captured by the notion of laissez faire, characterized by a reluctant performance towards providing services and national urban policy. Meanwhile national institutions entrusted with planning suffer from overlapping responsibilities and are found static and plagued with bureaucracy. Not to forget to mention, the only national planning framework provided by the central state is a mere general orientation plan associated with land use leading to ambiguity. This come along with other outdated local tools, incompatible with the current region's needs that focus more on zoning and land use. Finally, administrative and planning boundaries do not align. Each has its own logic and governed by different governance system without coordination mainly highlighted by political and sectarian logic. Facing this situation, in a context of a municipalization rather than decentralization, and under the umbrella of Ta'ef agreement that advocates decentralization, municipalities gathered their forces under a new administrative structure called unions of municipalities. Currently, these later are trying to find a way to fill in the gap of the minimal state intervention entrusted to respond to cities need and eventually provide public services. The paper shows that unions of municipalities are facing two major challenges; an internal and an external one. From one hand, unions face an internal fragmentation at the economic, social, political and spatial level. Their performance is impeded by sectarian politics causing internal territorial fragmentation where three types of constructed unions can be distinguished; municipalities of a certain type of union are non contiguous, others have overlapped boundaries, and the rest are too large. All of which causing a big difficulty for any development planning. On the other hand, unions of municipalities are facing the pressure of the Syrian refugees. They are already stretched out in terms of planning whereby they are currently entrusted not only in providing public services to the hosting fragmented community, but also to refugees as well. In the climate of these prevailing challenges, the paper draws the attention on the direct relation between unions and IOs. A relation that bypasses the entire central system while changing the balance between the central state and the local level. In order to enhance their capacities, unions and municipalities coordinate with international organizations especially after the crisis of the Syrian refugees. While empowered by IOs through the transfer of new know how and expertise, unions are implementing a mix of national out dated tools and international up dated tools. IOs are pushing municipalities and union of municipalities in Lebanon into developing their own capacities to better face their own regional challenges and to better handle the displaced Syrian since they are the main hosting community. Hence they are found in a new redefinition phase as new of actors for development, implementing mix of tools notably through knowledge channels such as IOs and consequently presenting a new territorial boundaries remarkably with the appearance of new spatial entities part of the national territory.

To this end, the paper shows that unions of municipalities offer a new articulation of local dynamics. This articulation is manifested by a new actor of local governance, unveiling a new territory for planning and experiencing new tools; an emerging dynamic between the centrality of the State and the un-accomplished decentralization, which fosters the rise of a bottom-up approach. This dynamic reflects a shift or change of power balance at the union's level between the centralized state and the local level governed by municipalities which has a substantial impact on the prevailing mode of governance.

Scholars have been increasingly concerned with portrayals of terrorism in mainstream and alternative media outlets. Terrorism had previously received some scholarly attention; the political and policy ramifications of September 11 and subsequent terrorist threats or attacks on the European Union, The United States and the Middle East have prompted an immediate and voluminous response from scholars. Communication researchers have since focused on public response and reaction to terrorist attacks, definitions of terrorism, policy questions, media portrayals of terrorism, and framing across different media and nations (e.g., Greenberg 2002; Noll 2003; Norris et al. 2003). This study undertakes theory testing of agenda-setting and framing media coverage of the Islamic State, as reported by prominent U.S. and European newspapers. This study investigates The New York Times, The Guardian, and Le Monde newspapers coverage of the Islamic State phenomenon during pivotal periods since the rise of the group in 2011 until present date. In conjuncture with the framing and agenda-setting media theories, along with existing literature on media coverage of war and terrorist groups, the content analysis showed that the media reflect their respective national interests using a predominately subjective approach in the coverage of the Islamic State issue; however there is a difference in the treatment in the coverage and sources of information used. It is noteworthy to mention that when analyzing the news coverage of IS in Western media, one can hardly expect variance in the use of frames, as IS is unanimously considered as a threat by the Western world. It was expected that the news coverage of the media outlets scrutinized to be framed according to the aforementioned, although treatment might differ. However, in testing the theory one can conclude that an intervention is needed by these leading countries through their media reports concerning the issue of IS. It is not enough to tell audience members the obvious and how one should understand the situation as a serious crisis; however the media have a functional role, one of which to not only act as surveillance but to also interpret the consequences of our political, social, and cultural structures. As the results indicated in this study the different media outlets emphasized the evident manifest of this type of situation as opposed to creating a forum for public discourse and a way to intervene at an attempt for a call of action. In these particular situations the media once again have proved to be "loyal" watchdog to the conservative matter of guarding and not allowing entrance or in other words involving its audience by giving them a voice of engagement and pressing the leading world powers to take a stance.

This study is a direct representation of the times we live in. Having a voice and sharing it with the world has never been easier. The world can reply as well, and that's the beauty of it. The message can be the same as it was 10 years ago, but the medium has changed tremendously. Jay Baer, an American marketing consultant, once said "Content is fire and social media is the gasoline." Social media has the power to transform a simple image taken by the phone into an internet sensation shared by people on the other side of the world. Add to it an opinion leader and an influencer and the sky is the limit. That's the significance of this study and these are the times we're living in today. Knowing how to deal with those changing times on a business level and understanding the end consumers' presence and behavior online is paramount. Digging deeper into influencers and opinion leaders and their impact in influencing others is the main core of this study as it showcases the change in the flow of information and the behavior that come with it. Marketers are not interested in the technology or the medium but how it affects people. Those people who are the targeted audience and the ones marketers are trying to reach and how social media and technology change their behavior. Before 2005 and the social media boom, marketers managed fine and did their jobs well. Mainly because they didn't know what they were missing and it was the same for everyone. Now, of course, social media is here more than ever and the web is not going to disappear. Who knows where we're going to be in the future? What is going to be different? We see lots of mind-blowing technologies some of which appear to be very close to science fiction and then they come true and there are a lot of competing technologies which can't all come true because we can't do anything. It's a time of amazing change and opportunities. For all of us in marketing, digital marketing specifically, it's also a time of great uncertainty. The study helps brands figure out if their social media strategy is working and whether or not using the two-step flow theory is a good tactic to continue applying in business marketing strategies that rely on social media network applications. The study also helps brands in figuring out what kind of content and material consumers love the most. The beauty about social media is that it's a local or personal focus with a global reach meaning people can share their own opinions, ideas and thoughts and the whole world can hear them. The digital era has impacted a lot of people's lives. Even the traditional media, like the television, has been impacted by it. It's called the "Second Screen" in which people tend to have a social media capable device within arms reach when they're using a traditional medium. This allows them to be part of a larger conversation and it enriches the viewing experience. For example, when an event is happening like the World Cup, tweets increase dramatically when a goal is scored a team has won. So there's no denying how impactful and crucial social media has been in changing people's lives and behaviors. It's also paramount for marketers to find clever ways to reach out to their audiences online and influence their behaviors and way of thinking. One thing certain is that we're not loyal to the social media platforms or the technology, instead to the community that these platforms provide. Before Facebook shook the world in 2005, many of Lebanese internet users were on MSN or mIRC, but when did we leave those for for Facebook? Not when the social media platform was introduced but when our friends and family started going there. It's the feeling of belongingness and community that drove us to Facebook, not the actual platform. People weren't loyal to MSN, they were loyal to their friends, and that's very important to understand. Social media platforms are changing daily. Updates and improvements are being added continuously. The digital world is an ever so changing realm and staying ahead of the competition is a huge challenge. What was once "The Facebook" for a small community of college students at Harvard University is now the biggest social media platform in the world. Why? Because Mark Zuckerberg and the team kept on innovating and improving; the biggest of which was buying Instagram and WhatsApp. As users of the different social media platforms, we share our life stories, our ideas and opinions. We're also connecting with brands and staying connected to businesses and the community built around it. Social media has the changed the way people behave and the way we think about brands and the way they buy things. For marketing, that's very interesting and important. To sum it all up, people demand value, consistency, honesty and transparency and the brands that can deliver that and truly fulfill that need in this fast changing connected world are the ones who are going to be successful. This study investigated through quantitative survey methodology how Lebanese businesses should leverage social media and what will impact consumers the most. It did so through using the platforms of three distinct businesses in Lebanon which utilize social media to its fullest: Zaatar w Zeit, Almaza and GS. The following research questions and hypotheses were posed and tested accordingly using descriptives, t-test and linear regression analysis. In relation to the sample all of the hypotheses yielded significant support. RQ1: Is being present on Social Media enough or should there be an online community of loyal fans who engage and interact with the brand? RQ2: How do followers respond to the content posted by the opinion leader? RQ3: How much should businesses be active on social media to get their desired results without bombarding the audience? H1: The bigger an online community of fans is created towards a brand, the more it will lead to sales and engagement for the brand. H2: As brands become more active online, their loyal fans and customers will increase as well. H3: The more people engage more with the brand's content on social media the more they recognize the brand's name among others.

Background: Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity especially in elderly patients. It is characterized by skeletal and pulmonary muscle dysfunction, endothelial impairment, exercise intolerance, high mortality and poor quality of life. However, the non-pharmacologic strategy guidelines recommended exercise training to reverse these dysfunctions.

Purpose: The aim of this study was first, to determine the effects of exercise training on skeletal and respiratory muscle function, exercise capacity, dyspnea and quality of life in CHF. Secondly, to compare different exercise rehabilitation programs: aerobic training, inspiratory muscle training, and combined aerobic and inspiratory training programs.

Methods: 32 patients with stable chronic heart failure were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of training (3 times / Week). The patients were divided, thereafter, to four different groups: controls (n=8), aerobic interval training (AIT; n=8), inspiratory muscle training (IMT; n=8), and combined (AIT+IMT; n=8). AIT consisted on treadmill exercise at 60% to 90% of maximum heart rate; IMT was performed at 60% of maximal inspiratory muscle pressure; AIT+IMT training consisted of AIT followed by IMT sessions. The controls were instructed to maintain their habitual daily living activities. At baseline and after the end of the training period (after 3 months), patients underwent respiratory muscle function assessment, limited incremental exercise, skeletal muscle function, 6-min walking tests, dyspnea and quality of life scoring.

Results: Significant improvements have been shown in strength (96%, p <0.01) and endurance (87%, p <0.001) of both respiratory and skeletal muscles (respectively 11% and 30%; p <0.05), quality of life scoring (55%, p <0.05), 6 min walk test (30%, p <0.05), time of stress test (42%, p <0.001) and dyspnea (- 40%, p<0.001) in the combined training group.

Conclusion: Combined AIT to IMT was more effective in improving exercise capacity, pulmonary function and QOL in CHF patients.

Funding acknowledgements: This research was supported by National Council for Scientific Research, Beirut, Lebanon.

Ethics Approval: Approved by the ethics committee of Beirut cardiac institute, Beirut, Lebanon.

Introduction: La neuromodulation comporte un ensemble de techniques neurochirurgicales qui présentent l'avantage de réversibilité potentielle et qui se différencient surtout par la cible de stimulation. La neuromodulation induite par la stimulation électrique du système nerveux a largement supplanté la majorité des techniques chirurgicales neuro-ablatives et est largement utilisée depuis les deux dernières décennies pour le traitement de diverses pathologies neurologiques, entre autres, les douleurs neuropathiques réfractaires. Le système somatosensoriel est stimulé à ses différents niveaux, à la périphérie comme au niveau central, pour le traitement de ce type de douleur; les cibles les plus courantes étant la moelle épinière et le cortex moteur. Bien que ces techniques montrent des résultats spectaculaires, une minorité de patients n'en bénéficie pas, d'où la nécessité de trouver des cibles alternatives de stimulation. Une des régions corticales les plus activées lors de la perception nociceptive est la partie postérieure de l'insula qui reçoit des projections du faisceau spinothalamique. Pourtant cette cible n'a jamais été utilisée en neurochirurgie, ainsi l'objectif de cette étude est de stimuler chez un modèle animal cette région (sous différents paramètres) et d'élucider ses effets électrophysiologiques sur l'activité extracellulaire unitaire des cellules des noyaux thalamiques traitant les informations somatosensorielles (incluant celles nociceptives), afin de tester son potentiel rôle dans le contrôle des douleurs. On a commencé cette étude par exploration du noyau thalamique Ventro-Postéro-Latéral (VPL), puisqu'il constitue le principal noyau somatosensoriel. Différentes études ont montré la présence de cellules Non Nociceptives (NN) et de cellules Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) au sein du VPL, ainsi que des cellules Nociceptives Spécifiques (NS) plutôt concentrées en périphérie de ce noyau. Matériels et Méthodes: 16 chats adultes sains ont subi un total de 27 sessions de Stimulation Insulaire (SI) avec recueil de l'activité électro-physiologique du VPL ipsilatéral (côté droit chez tous les animaux) en conditions stéréotaxiques. Sur le plan expérimental, une incision cutanée est réalisée sous anesthésie générale, sans curare et avec anesthésie locale pré-incisionnelle, suivie de deux craniotomies, l'une centrée sur la localisation présumée du VPL et l'autre sur celle du cortex insulaire postérieur, se basant sur deux atlas stéréotaxiques du cerveau du chat (Snider and Niemer 1961 et Reinozo-Suarez 1961 respectivement) ainsi que sur des repères anatomiques pour l'accès à l'insula. Les cellules du VPL sont réparties de manière somatotopique et répondent à des stimuli tactiles (nociceptifs et/ou non-nociceptifs). Ainsi, la détection des cellules et l'identification de leur nature se fait par stimulations tactiles (brush, light or deep pressure, pinch, pin prick) des champs récepteurs sur l'hémicorps gauche controlatéral au VPL. La stimulation du cortex insulaire postérieur se fait en situation épidurale et est de type bipolaire avec une distance inter-électrodes de 1 mm avec le pôle négatif délivrant le plus fort courant, toujours placé en postérieur. Les fils de connexion des électrodes (Ag/AgCl) sont reliés à un stimulateur externe (AD instruments®) avec réglage des paramètres de stimulation (50Hz, 250 μs, 2.5V, pendant 10minutes). Le recueil stéréotaxique de l'activité des cellules thalamiques est effectué par une microélectrode en Tungsten introduite dans un guide. Un « cathode follower » est intercalé près de la microélectrode pour adapter son impédance aux préamplificateur et amplificateur permettant le recueil du signal. Ce dernier est visualisé sur un oscilloscope (logiciel LabChart Pro®) et stocké sur ordinateur grâce à une carte-interface d'échantillonnage du signal après conversion A/D à 20 000 Hz. Le traitement des données électrophysiologiques est effectué par les logiciels Labchart® et Neuroexplorer®, et se base sur une analyse d'histogrammes de décharges, des calculs de fréquences moyennes de décharges spontanées, et une analyse de la forme de décharge en bouffées de potentiels d'action. Un suivi de l'évolution et la durée de l'effet de la SI est aussi évalué. Résultats préliminaires: La SI induit une modulation différentielle de l'activité des cellules du VPL: inhibition des cellules nociceptives (NS/WDR; n=17) et activation des cellules non nociceptives (NN; n=10). Ces effets deviennent statistiquement significatifs à partir de 10 min suivant l'arrêt de la SI. La SI n'a montré aucun effet statistiquement significatif sur la fréquence de décharge en bouffées de potentiels d'action (probablement à cause du faible effectif) mais une tendance forte et nette à une diminution de celle-ci est surtout observée uniquement pour les cellules nociceptives. Discussion et conclusion: Nos résultats montrent que la SI intervient dans la régulation de la voie somesthésique et nociceptive, en inhibant notamment la transmission du message douloureux via une inhibition des cellules nociceptives (WDR et NS). L'activation des cellules non-nociceptives concomitante suggère que la SI pourrait mettre en œuvre un mécanisme similaire au « gate control spinal » où la stimulation de la voie tactile (voie lemnisacle = cellules NN) pourrait résulter en une inhibition de la sensation douloureuse (voie spino-thalamique = cellules WDR/NS). Par ailleurs, l'effet inhibiteur induit par la SI sur les bouffées de potentiel d'action, net pour les cellules nociceptives, semble intéressant chez ces animaux naïfs, puisque généralement les bouffées sont incriminées dans la genèse des douleurs neuropathiques. De plus, leur diminution traduit un changement de la sensibilité des cellules En complément à la présente étude, autres noyaux thalamiques impliqués dans la nociception seront également étudiés: le groupe postérieur (composé de 38% de cellules nociceptives) et le noyau ventro-postéro-inférieur (50% de cellules nociceptives), alors que le VPL n'en contient que 10% de ce type de cellules. Ainsi, l'avantage qu'aurait l'étude de ces noyaux serait la capacité d'identifier un plus grand nombre de cellules NS et d'analyser par conséquent l'effet spécifique de la SI sur la douleur. En conclusion, nos données préliminaires appuient, si elles se confirment par un effectif plus large avec la poursuite de l'étude, la possibilité de développer ce type de stimulation (via une technique non invasive telle que la stimulation magnétique transcrânienne) comme une nouvelle cible potentielle de la neurostimulation dans le contrôle de certains types de douleurs neuropathiques réfractaires et rebelles aux alternatives actuelles de neuromodulation.

Glioblastoma multiform (GBM), the most common and aggressive primary brain tumor, is characterized by a high degree of hypoxia and resistance to therapy because of its adaptation capacities, including autophagy and growth factors signaling. In this study, we show an efficient hypoxia-induced survival autophagy in four different GBM cell lines (U87MG, M059K, M059J and LN-18) and an activation of a particular neurotrophin signaling pathway. Indeed, the enhancement of both TrkC and NT-3 was followed by downstream p38MAPK phosphorylation, suggesting the occurrence of a survival autocrine loop. Autophagy inhibition increased the hypoxia-induced expression of TrkC and its phosphorylated form as well as the phosphorylation of p38MAPK, suggesting a complementary effect of the two processes, leading to cell survival. Alone, autophagy inhibition reduced cellular growth without inducing cell death. However, the double inhibition of autophagy and TrkC signaling was necessary to bring cells to death as shown by PARP cleavage, particularly important in hypoxia. Moreover, a very high expression of TrkC and NT-3 was found in tumor sections from GBM patients, highlighting the importance of neurotrophic signaling in GBM tumor cell survival. These data suggest that a combined treatment targeting these two pathways could be considered in order to induce the death of GBM cells.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers locally and worldwide and among the leading causes of cancer-related deaths. Colorectal carcinogenesis follows a well defined adenoma-carcinoma sequence characterized by a series of mutations affecting key regulators such as p53, ras, and mismatch repair genes. Although standard therapies for CRC, including surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, are effective for some cases; however, the overall survival rate for CRC patients is still relatively low. Studies have focused on developing therapeutic approaches that might prolong CRC patients' survival. The chemotherapeutic drug, 5-FluoroUracil (5FU), has long been used as the treatment of choice for CRC. However, patients develop resistance to this drug, stressing the need to study the mechanism underlying 5FU resistance. In the present study, we generated a human resistant colorectal cancer cell line resistant to 5FU (HCT116-5FUR) by culturing the parental cell line with increasing concentrations of 5FU. Then we compared the effects of 5FU on HCT116 and HCT116-5FUR cell growth. We were able to characterize the inhibition of proliferation by 5FU only in the HCT116 cells using MTT and the trypan blue dye exclusion assays. Propidium iodide DNA staining followed by flow cytometry analysis demonstrated that 5FU failed to induce S-phase arrest and accumulation of the treated cells in the presumably apoptotic sub-G1 region in HCT116-5FUR cells as it did in the parental counterparts. On a molecular level, 5FU increased the expression of the tumor suppressor p53 in HCT116 cells only but not in the 5FU-resistant ones. Two key enzymes involved in 5FU metabolism and mechanism of action, dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase and thymidylate synthase, did not show different baseline protein expression levels nor were modulated by 5FU by western blotting. Further studies are underway to characterize the gene expression profile of the different CRC cell lines and the mechanism of 5FU resistance in HCT116-5FU cells in an attempt to reverse this resistance by novel or combination treatments.

Background: The optimal intensity of myeloablation with a reduced-toxicity conditioning(RTC) regimen to decrease relapse rate after allogeneic stem cell transplant(allo-SCT)without increasing non-relapse mortality(NRM), has not been well established.

Aims: In this retrospective study at the American University of Beirut medical center(AUBMC) we aimed to evaluate the outcomes of patients who underwent allo-SCT with thiotepa, busulfan and fludarabine(TBF) as RTC.

Methods:We included twenty fourconsecutivepatients with hematological malignancies who received TBF as conditioning forallo- SCTfrom January to December 2016. All patients and transplant characteristics are listed in Table1.All patients received the myeloablative conditioning regimen consisting ofthiotepa(5mg/kg/day)infused on day -7 and -6, fludarabine(30mg/m2/day) was infused on day -5 to day -2; and busulfan(130mg/m2/day) was infused on day -5 to day-3. All patients received 2.5mg/kg/day intravenousrabbit antithymocyte globulin(ATG) on days -2 and -1. GVHD prophylaxis for patients transplanted from haploidentical donors consisted of post-transplant cyclophosphamide 50mg/kg/day on day +3 and day +5, cyclosporine started at 3 mg/kg/day on day+6 and readjusted according to level, and mycophenolate mofetil 500mgx4/day started on day+6 to +28. Patients transplanted from matched related donor, received cyclosporine as of day +1.

Results: Twenty three patients(96%) engrafted, with 14 days(range, 10-18) and 13 days(range, 8-48) as median time for neutrophil and platelet engraftment respectively. One patient who underwent haploidentical donor transplant with persistent disease for AML(karyotype 45,XY,-7) failed to engraft and died due to disease progression on day+22.After a median follow up of 10 months(range, 1-22) post-allo-SCT, the cumulative incidence of GradeII-IV acute GVHD(aGVHD) was 26%. One patient developed chronic limited GVHD(cGVHD).All the complication post allo-SCT are listed in table 1. Five patients(24%) relapsed post allo-SCT at a median of 163 days(range, 55-384), of which three(13%) died due to disease progression, and two were successfully salvaged and are in complete remission(CR) with full donor chimerism(FDC) at last follow up. Two patients developed JC virus progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, one of them made a full recovery and the other died in CR. The day 100 NRM was 0%. At last follow up 20 patients(83%) are alive in CR, with negative minimal residual disease and FDC.

Summary/Conclusion: Our results show that This TBF conditioning regimen appears to be safe, allows high rate of engraftment and low NRM rate among high-risk patients and can lead to a long-term disease control.

Objectives: Enterobacteriacae are found ubiquitous in nature and constitute a major part of the human gut normal flora. In specific cases, these bacteria can cause opportunistic infections such as urinary tract infections, blood infections, etc. The emergence of resistance in these organisms is known to increase the severity of infections and cause a threat to the patient (Adler et al, 2016). Many beta-lactamase-producing bacteria belong to the Enterobacteriacae family such as, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. In previous work (Challita et al, 2017; Melynk et al, 2014), we have shown that the expression of acquired beta-lactamase gene comes on the expense of the bacterial fitness. As a result, bacteria become less competitive vis-à-vis its sensitive counterpart when cultured in an antibiotic free environment. The present study aims to evaluate the growth of extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriacae: E. coli and K. pneumoniae, when present in competition. Methods: In-vitro interspecies competition assays were conducted in an antibiotic-free medium; sensitive (S) and ESBL-producing (R) bacteria were incubated at 37°C alone and in combination. Bacterial concentrations were calculated at time points 0, 2, 4, 8, 24, 48 and 72hrs of incubation by taking small aliquots from the bacterial suspensions and spreading them on Muller Hinton agar. The next day, viable colonies were counted and the concentrations of the initial suspensions were obtained using the formula: CFU/mL=CFD. Then, growth curves for sensitive and ESBL-producing strains both alone and in combination were plotted and competition indices were calculated. In parallel, the OD580 was measured at each time point for all the cultures. The assays were repeated using different E. coli and K. pneumoniae strains and in 14 different combinations. The genotypic profiles of bacterial strains used were determined using multiplex-PCR technique (Figure 1). Results: E. coli (R) showed a reduced competition index when growing in presence of K. pneumoniae (S). However, K. pneumoniae (R) was outcompeted by E. coli (S) when co-cultured. In order to investigate this discrepancy, competition assays conducted between sensitive strains and others between ESBL-producing strains were used as control. E. coli (S) vs. K. pneumoniae (S) showed an outgrowth in favor of K. pneumoniae. However, E. coli (R) outcompeted K. pneumoniae (R). Conclusion: The results suggest that ESBL-production genes in E. coli and K. pneumoniae confer a fitness cost that leads to the decrease in frequency of these latter in interspecies competitions. These findings are consistent with previous studies consisting of intraspecies interactions. Culturing bacteria in a medium with more diverse isolates can provide better insights into bacterial competition and resistance dynamics.

Efficacy of Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy on Improving Balance in Elderly

Zainab Jaafar1, DPT, Ayah El Hajj1, BSc., Dalia Mahfouz1, BSc., Muna M. Kasti2, PhD 1Physical Therapy Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Global University 2Faculty of Health Sciences, Global University, Beirut - Lebanon zjaafar@gu.edu.lb; A100021@students.gu.edu.lb; dalia.mahfouz90@hotmail.com; mkasti@gu.edu.lb

Introduction: Muscle weakness and impaired balance are risk factors leading to falls and therefore to a high risk of injuries and fractures in the geriatric population. Although most exercise interventions with balance and muscle strengthening components have been shown to reduce falls, other elements should be taken into consideration such as the vestibular exercises. The objective was to investigate the effectiveness of the inclusion of vestibular exercises in 8-week exercise program on balance in Elderly.

Methods: Elderly subjects, 5 males and 7 females with at least one fall in the previous year were recruited. They were randomly divided into 2 equal groups: vestibular group (VR) that received vestibular exercises in addition to a conventional exercise program, and a comparative group that received a conventional balance exercise program without the vestibular exercises. Balance of both groups was assessed via Tinetti balance test, their physical fitness via the senior fitness test, and their reaction speed via the reaction time test.

Results:

There was significant improvement for the vestibular group after the interventions in four tests, the chair stand test (p = 0.01), 2-min step test (p = 0.04), chair sit and reach test (p = 0.003), and 8-feet up and go test (p =0.01), while for the comparative group there was only one significant change noticed in the back scratch test (p = 0.01).

Conclusion:

This pilot study provided preliminary data on the effect of vestibular rehabilitation therapy in reducing the risk of falls in elderly. A statistical significant improvement in balance outcome has been noticed following the 8-week group vestibular exercise training program. The vestibular group showed significant improvement in many parameters that help balance enhancement in geriatric population and on the long-term decrease the risk of falls.

Les Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (TIC) connaissent depuis plusieurs années des bouleversements remarquables dans l'accroissement de leur utilisation et de leur diffusion. Elles ont été nommées des technologies clés puisqu'elles donnent accès à l'information et permettent son stockage et sa transmission. Ces TIC englobent les ordinateurs de bureau, les ordinateurs portables ou "Laptop″, les téléphones mobiles, la télévision et les consoles de jeux électroniques. Une étude faite en Australie ente 1998 et 2008 a démontré que l'accès à ces TIC est passé de 16% à 72%. En outre, la durée moyenne de l'utilisation des ordinateurs était de sept heures par semaine, pour plus d'un tiers des 884 participants adolescents de cette étude. Les utilisateurs du Smartphone varient selon les tranches d'âge: les adolescents utilisent leur téléphone mobile plus couramment que les personnes âgées. Ils sont donc plus vulnérables à développer des Troubles Musculo-Squelettiques (TMS) en relation à l'usage abusif des TIC. Ces TMS qui se produisent sont souvent causés par les mouvements répétés et par une mise en tension musculaire provoquée par de longues heures d'exposition surtout en utilisant le téléphone. En fait, le mouvement statique répété réduit la circulation sanguine, empêche les nutriments d'être fournis aux muscles et induit la fatigue et la douleur. Ainsi les TMS risquent d'affecter l'activité quotidienne et la vie sociale des personnes concernées. En effet, peu d'études ont été effectuées pour expliquer ce problème qui est en croissance continue et qui présente un impact majeur au niveau de l'échelle mondiale. Pour cela, et vu la précarité des études faites au Liban, nous avons voulu évaluer l'existence d'un lien entre l'usage des TIC et les problèmes de santé chez les adolescents sur le plan national en répondant à la question suivante: l'usage éducatif ou ludique des TIC engendre-t-il des TMS chez les adolescents libanais? Pour répondre à cette question, une étude descriptive corrélationnelle a été faite auprès d'un échantillon de convenance formé d'étudiants adolescents âgés entre 16 et 19 ans fréquentant le collège Saint Joseph des Filles de la Charité- Zouk et l'Université LGU au Mont-Liban. Ces participants ont répondu à un questionnaire servant à collecter des informations sociodémographiques, à l'échelle de Cornell pour évaluer les TMS, et au « Typing Master » pour l'évaluation de la vitesse brute, la précision et la vitesse nette de saisie de textes. Suite à la collecte empirique, les données ont été traitées avec le logiciel "SPSS 17.0 for Windows" afin de réaliser les tests statistiques. A l'issue des analyses descriptives et inférentielles, plusieurs résultats méritent notre attention. Pour les caractéristiques sociodémographiques, la majorité de l'échantillon (65%) était de sexe féminin, avec une moyenne d'âge de 16.95 (sd=0.81). La majorité avait un poids normal (51.3%), 29.1% étaient maigres, 17.9% possédaient un embonpoint et 1.7% étaient obèses. De plus, 89.7% étaient droitiers. Concernant l'exposition aux TIC, 63.2% des participants utilisent l'ordinateur, 83.8% le Laptop, 99.1% le cellulaire, 54.7% la tablette, 95.7% la télévision et 38.5% les jeux-vidéos. En effet, l'ordinateur est utilisé pour une durée de 1 à 2 heures/jour (53%) similairement pour le Laptop (62.4%), de même que pour la tablette (43.6%) et les jeux-vidéos (23.1%). Par contre, le cellulaire est en majorité utilisé pour plus que 5 heures/jour (62.4%) et la télévision pour une durée de 2 à 5 heures/jour (41.9%). De plus, parmi les participants de notre étude, 12% faisaient moins qu'une fois par semaine du sport, 31.6% au moins une fois par semaine, 34.2% une à trois fois par semaine et 22.2% plus que trois fois par semaine. De plus, 82.1% d'entre eux utilisaient les TIC à l'école soit pour un but personnel (15.4%,) soit pour un but éducatif (30.8%) ou pour les deux buts à la fois (35%). En s'appuyant sur ces résultats, il nous est possible de constater que l'utilisation des TIC est de plus en plus intégrée dans le contexte scolaire. Pour ce qui est de la vitesse de saisie des données: 6% peuvent être considérés comme débutants, 46.2% comme intermédiaires, 44.4% comme ayant un niveau avancé et 3.4% comme experts. Cependant, il est à noter que, pour ce qui est de la précision et de l'exactitude des mots saisis, la totalité de l'échantillon peut être classée comme « débutant » puisque n'ayant pas atteint les 90 mots exacts par minute, ce qui signale un manque de concentration chez la plupart des participants. Quant aux troubles musculo-squelettiques, il est à noter que l'effectif de douleurs survenant plusieurs fois par jour est élevé pour le bas du dos (12%) et la nuque (10.3%). L'effectif d'inconfort extrême a été le plus élevé pour le bas du dos et le haut du dos ; tandis que pour la relation entre l'interférence de la douleur avec les activités du participant, celle-ci a été extrême pour le bas du dos et respectivement pour le haut du dos et le poignet droit. A cet âge très précoce, les adolescents commencent déjà à souffrir de TMS spécifiquement au niveau du tronc et des membres supérieurs. Ce qui nous pousse à s'interroger sur le devenir de ces troubles ainsi que sur la gravité de leur évolution constituant ainsi de véritables problèmes de santé dans les années à venir.

Finalement, nous devons souligner l'importance de la posture correcte avec un support du bas du dos lors de l'utilisation de l'ordinateur portable. L'ajustement approprié de l'angle de l'écran et des pauses fréquentes seront efficaces pour réduire l'inconfort dans la région du cou. Avec une diminution de cet inconfort, l'étudiant se sentira plus à l'aise, ce qui aura un effet positif sur ses études et sur le taux de réussite. Les futures recherches devraient se concentrer sur la relation qui existe entre la vitesse de saisies des mots et l'activité physique en se basant sur un échantillonnage plus large et représentatif afin de rechercher la relation entre la dominance de la main, le genre féminin et la douleur au bas du dos pour l'ensemble des TIC. Sur le plan ergonomique, des interventions ergonomiques à visée corrective peuvent être menées auprès des utilisateurs pour détecter les différents facteurs générateurs des TMS. Une description précise de la manière dont les adolescents effectuent leurs activités d'utilisation des TIC permet d'élaborer des démarches d'ajustement et de correction posturales adaptées aux adolescents lors de l'usage de ces technologies. En outre, en termes d'ergonomie de conception, il est nécessaire de s'intéresser aux différentes caractéristiques des utilisateurs des TIC et à tous les problèmes générés pour prévenir la réinstallation de ces mêmes types de troubles et aider à la conception de technologies avec un minimum de risques sur la santé.

La sédentarité est l'un des dix facteurs de risque de mortalité dans le monde. Plusieurs études ont montré que le comportement sédentaire est un facteur de risque pour plusieurs maladies chroniques dégénératives spécialement l'obésité et les maladies cardiovasculaires, le diabète, le cancer, et les maladies métaboliques. Dix pourcents des enfants du monde âgés entre 5 à 17 ans sont obèses ou en surpoids, chose qui est due à la consommation croissante de graisses et à la probabilité de l'augmentation des comportements sédentaires. D'une part, la sédentarité peut être définie comme un état dans lequel les mouvements corporels sont réduits au minimum et la dépense énergétique est inférieure de 1.5 fois de celle du repos. Des études récentes ont montré une relation entre le comportement sédentaire et un haut risque de cancer, qui augmente suite au fait de s'assoir pour de longues périodes. Si une personne exécute 30 minutes d'activités physiques par jour mais passe le reste de la journée en activités sédentaires alors son risque d'avoir un cancer va accroître. En fait, les recherches ont montré que maintenir une position assise pour une longue durée induit des changements dans certaines fonctions métaboliques et cellulaires du corps de façon uniforme. Outre le gain de poids, il faudrait aussi noter le changement du taux d'hormones sexuelles (androgène, œstrogène qui augmentent le risque de cancer de prostate et du sein). De plus, un changement du taux du glucose va favoriser la croissance de cellules cancéreuses. De même, le comportement sédentaire affecte le taux de vitamine D qui a son tour est reliée à quelques types de cancer. D'autre part, l'inactivité physique ne représente pas seulement une absence d'activité mais correspond à des occupations telles que regarder la TV, travailler sur ordinateur, ainsi qu'aux activités intellectuelles. Selon l'OMS en 2008, le plus haut niveau de sédentarité était en Amérique (40% des hommes), en Méditerranée orientale (36% des hommes, et 50% des femmes) alors que les pourcentages les plus faibles étaient en Asie du Sud-Est (15% des hommes et 1% des femmes). Des estimations aux Etats-Unis et au Brésil montrent que 75 % des jeunes passent leur temps dans des activités sédentaires. Au Canada, 68% du temps d'éveil des hommes et 69% du temps d'éveil des femmes est passé en comportement sédentaire. La sédentarité résulte de plusieurs facteurs dont la croissance de l'urbanisme, l'existence de violence, l'augmentation de la pauvreté, l'augmentation de la technologie au travail et à l'école (ordinateur, téléphone portable…), l'augmentation de l'utilisation des moyens de transports (voiture, moto...), et le plus important facteur est la diminution de l'activité physique durant le temps de loisir. En fait, selon l'OMS (2008), un adulte sur quatre manque d'exercice dans le monde et les jeunes passent 4 à 8 heures sédentaires par jour. Etre en bonne santé ne signifie pas seulement ne pas être malade, mais aussi avoir un bon fonctionnement qui dépend d'une bonne structure sans amyotrophies musculaires, ni des problèmes posturaux, cardiovasculaires, et d'obésité. L'adage suivant ''Un esprit sain dans un corps sain'' résume l'importance de l'activité physique. Pour cela, nous avons voulu examiner la question de recherche suivante: Existe-il une relation entre l'activité physique et le comportement sédentaire chez les adolescents libanais du Mont Liban ? Pour rechercher cette relation, une étude descriptive corrélationnelle a été faite auprès d'adolescents libanais âgés entre 13 et 19 ans. Ces adolescents ont répondu à un questionnaire sociodémographique, et les échelles: « Physical Activity Questionnaire », et « Adolescent Sedentary Activity Questionnaire ''ASAQ'' ». Après le dépouillement les données ont été traitées sur une base de données avec le logiciel ''SPSS 17,0 for Windows'' avec α < 0,005. Des 60 participants dont 58.3% étaient des garçons et 41.7% des filles, la majorité avait un niveau secondaire. Parmi ces participants, 56.7% habitaient en région rurale tandis que 43.3% dans des milieux urbains. La majorité des participants (86.7%) avaient un niveau socioéconomique moyen. En fait 73.3% des adolescents étaient en surpoids ou obèses, et la prévalence de l'obésité fut de 25% ce qui démontre que le quart des adolescents libanais ou du moins ceux de l'échantillon sont obèses constituant ainsi une conclusion alarmante pour les années à venir surtout à la lumière de toutes les évidences qui lient l'obésité et l'apparition de comorbidités supplémentaires. De plus, 46.7% se déplacent en utilisant une voiture, 15% en bus, alors que seulement 3.3% à pied. Ces résultats sont surprenants vu que la majorité des adolescents appartenait à la région rurale dans laquelle on s'attend à ce qu'il y ait des activités physiques supplémentaires. Les mesures de sédentarité ont montré que 95% des participants sont sédentaires durant les jours de la semaine avec une moyenne de 10,330 heures/jour et ce chiffre augmentait durant le fin de semaine où le pourcentage augmentait jusqu'à 98,37% avec une moyenne de 11.481 heures/jour, sachant que cela constitue le triple de la normale. A partir de l'échelle PAQ, les résultats ont montré que 51,7% des adolescents ont un niveau d'activité modéré, 25% un niveau d'activité minime et 23,3% une activité physique élevée, avec une moyenne de 1,983 heures/jour. Les tests Chi-carré et t-test ont souligné des résultats significatifs pour l'âge et l'Indice de Masse Corporelle (IMC) avec le comportement sédentaire durant les jours de la semaine et seulement l'âge a été significativement corrélé avec les heures de sédentarité durant la fin de semaine. En outre, les résultats ANOVA ont montré une relation significative entre l'âge et l'activité physique. En d'autres termes, les adolescents les plus jeunes ont des niveaux d'activité physique plus élevés. Enfin et en bref, les résultats de relation ont montré qu'il n'y a pas de relation directe significative entre le comportement sédentaire et l'activité physique ce qui est en cohérence avec les données d'études actuelles qui appellent à considérer ces deux phénomènes comme des entités séparées mais entremêlées. Finalement, nous pouvons conclure qu'on a remarqué une absence de relation entre l'activité physique et le comportement sédentaire impliquant que l'activité physique n'est pas le contraire de la sédentarité, ainsi chaque personne peut vivre les deux phénomènes simultanément. Une personne peut être très active mais en même temps être très sédentaire, c'est son comportement qui définit la situation dans laquelle où elle se trouve. Les études précédentes ont recommandé de faire plus d'activité physique pour le développement des aptitudes physiques surtout à l'école où l'adolescent passe la majorité de son temps. De plus, il faudrait faire des examens pour les adolescents obèses ou en voie d'obésité pour éviter les risques de problèmes cardiaques, de diabètes de type 2 et d'autres types de morbidités. L'éducation sportive dans les écoles -si elle est bien menée - est la première source d'activité physique, base des effets positifs pour des aptitudes de santé dans les générations à venir.

Background/Aims: Contrast induced nephropathy (CIN) is most widely defined as a 25% or 0.5 mg/dL (44 μmol/L) absolute rise from the baseline creatinine within 24-72 hours post exposure to radiocontrast media (CM). CM are usually utilized for both diagnostic and therapeutic interventional purposes. Among all procedures using CM, coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are the most to be associated with high incidence of CIN. The overall CIN incidence reported ranges between 0.6 and 2.4% in the general population as per the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and manufacturer data. Contrast Induced Nephropathy (CIN) is a major cause of acute renal failure (ARF) in hospitalized patients worldwide. This systematic review aims to evaluate the rate, risk factors, prophylactic measures and outcomes of CIN and to identify the gaps in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region regarding the status of CIN. Methods: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was used to report the results of this review. Keywords and combinations related to CIN words were used to search the databases comprehensively: "contrast", "nephropathy", "CIN", and "contrast-induced". OVID, PubMed and Scopus databases were searched since inception till May 28th, 2016 to identify all the available literature on the CIN in MENA region. Articles that reported rates of CIN in the Arabic speaking countries of the MENA region, and discussed patients of any age, gender or procedure requiring administration of a contrast were eligible for inclusion. Initially, two reviewers independently and in duplicate assessed study titles and abstracts for relevance. Full texts of articles that were found to be eligible by any of the two reviewers were retrieved and evaluated. In total, 8 studies met the study inclusion criteria evaluating CIN in MENA. However, due to the obvious low quality of the retrieved eligible studies, meta-analytic methods were not an option. Results: In total, 85 articles were retrieved. Twenty duplicate articles were removed via EndNote referencing tool, remaining with 65 articles (29 from OVID, 30 from PubMed and 6 from Scopus) that are eligible for abstract and title screening. During the screening process, 56 records were excluded for not discussing CIN or discussing CIN but not in MENA region. Nine articles were eligible for full-text screening and data abstraction. One article was excluded because full-text was not retrieved. At the end, results of 8 articles were eligible for evaluation in this review. Retrieved studies were conducted in only 5 MENA countries - in Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria and Tunisia. Five studies were prospective and three were retrospective. Earliest population evaluated was in 2004. Convenience sampling was used in all studies. The largest study sample size was 280. Majority of the patients studied were above 50 years old. Among the 1,297 study participants, 137 (10.56%) cases suffered from CIN in MENA region since 2004. Gender stratification was reported only in one study and reported that 30% of their CIN patients were males. Diabetics, old aged, and patients with high urine albumin/creatinine ratio were at increased risk of developing CIN. In addition to the standard of care of administration of intra-venous hydration 24 hours pre and post contrast administration, N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) was also given. One study reported the use of sodium bicarbonate alone, whereas two other studies evaluated new agents as prophylactic measures and both were significantly successful in decreasing rates of CIN: Atorvastatin in a daily dose of 80 mg for 48h and Theophylline of 200 mg oral dose twice daily, starting 24 hours prior to procedure requiring contrast and for the following 48 hours. Outcomes of CIN were rarely reported. Conclusion: Few countries in the MENA considered CIN as a major ailment that is worth evaluating. Reported CIN rates are very scarce compared to our clinical experience and to rates reported worldwide. Future research should be directed toward evaluating the rates of CIN in this region. Additionally, studies should focus more on the long-term outcomes, economic burden, and quality of life of patients suffering from CIN

Le but de ce travail est de présenter les méthodes utilisées pour le dépistage des pathologies du sein, en particulier le cancer. De plus, ce papier présente l'état actuel de cet examen au Liban et les techniques d'imagerie médicale appliquées. En fait, un examen précoce et routinier des seins peut réduire le taux de mortalité dans ce cancer suite à la détection dans des stades assez réduits, sachant qu'entre 5% et 15% des femmes risquent avoir cette maladie. Ainsi, l'objectif de ce travail est d'étudier et d'élaborer les avantages d'utilisation des différentes technologies pour bien dépister le cancer de sein. De plus, nous voulions, par ce travail, trouver la meilleure combinaison d'examens radiologiques pour un bon dépistage tout en tenant compte des doses de radiations et les cas critiques des patientes. Concernant les techniques d'imageries médicales, la mammographie, l'échographie mammaire, l'IRM mammaire, la scintigraphie et la tomosynthèse sont traités dans ce travail. La méthodologie de travail repose sur une analyse transversale des différentes techniques d'imagerie médicales pour un dépistage des pathologies du sein. Dans un premier temps, les avantages et les limitations de chaque technique seront présentés. Dans un second temps, un questionnaire, remplit par des médecins Libanais (gynécologues, radiologues et oncologues), est analysé afin d'exploiter les principales techniques et méthodes utilisées pour détecter la présence d'anomalie au niveau des seins. Les résultats sont présentés sous forme de statistiques donnant une idée assez générale du statut actuel des techniques d'imageries médicales pour le dépistage de cancer de sein, mettant en évidence les avantages, les inconvénients, ainsi que les bénéfices de chaque imagerie médicale. En conclusion, nous pouvons conclure, en quelques mots, les avantages et les limitations de chaque technique • La mammographie est l'examen radiologique des seins qui permet d'obtenir des structures internes des seins et la détection des petites tumeurs qui ne sont pas palpables en pratique. La mammographie se fera à partir de 38 jusqu'à 75 ans. Elle présente des radiations et l'examen est doulereux. • L'échographie explore le sein à partir des ultrasons. Elle permet de préciser une masse détectée en mammographie qui peut être liquide comme kystique, solide, fibrome ou suspecte. Cet examen ne présente pas des radiations mais l'écho ne peut pas détecter les micro-calcifications cancéreuses. • L'IRM permet d'observer les tissus et les organes mous avec une grande précision et de produire des images en coupes bien analysées. L'image est obtenue par les mouvements des molécules au sein des tissus normaux et cancéreux. • La biopsie permet de prélever un échantillon d'un fragment de tissus dans le but de les examiner si bénignes ou malignes. • La scintigraphie est demandée s'il y a une opération pour le sein, pour la détection des ganglions sentinelles. Elle permet de localiser la ou les ganglions. Donc, la scintigraphie se fait seulement avant l'intervention chirurgicale du sein. Quant aux résultats de l'enquête auprès des médecins, nous avions trouvé que la plupart des médecins utilisent la mammographie et l'écho pour le dépistage des pathologies du sein. De plus, la majorité ne tient pas en compte les doses de radiations émises. Quant à l'utilisation des nouvelles techniques comme la tomosynthèse et la scintigraphie, très peu de médecins les utilisent. Enfin, concernant les intervalles d'âge, les examens médicaux routiniers se font entre 35 ans et 75 ans, ce qui répond aux normes internationaux.

Consumption of refined carbohydrates is known to be associated with the development of chronic diseases. Mankoushe, a popular breakfast, is made of white wheat flour that contain low quality protein due to having lysine as limiting amino acid. Addition of pulses to cereals is known to improve their protein quality. Therefore, an experiment was condented to investigate the effect of incorporating chickpeas into "Mankoushe Zaatar"on postprandial glycemia and lipidemia. Method: A randomized cross-over study was performed on sixteen healthy females aged between 20 and 40 years, having between BMI 18.5 and 29.9 kg/m2. Over-night fasted females were asked to consume two iso-energetic (Mankoushe) meals (200g; 680 Kcal) on two separate days, few days apart. One meal was the "Regular Mankoushe" and was made with white flour 100 % and the second meal was the "Chickpeas Mankoushe" that was made of a mixture of white/ chickpea flour (70/30). Blood samples were collected 15 min before meal ingest and at 30, 90, 150 and 210 min, and serum glucose and triglyderides were measured Results: Changes of serum G from baseline showed a slightl;y but not significantly lower values at 30 and 90 min in the chickpeas as compared to the control group. While the ingestion of the chickpea mankoushi showed a significantly lower TG level as compared with the contral group.

Conclusion:The incorporation of chickpeas flour in the dough of Mankoushi Zaatar" was able to reduce postprandial glycemia ancd lipidemia. Chickpea flour is a promising functional ingredient to be integrated into pastries to lower their glycemic index.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability worldwide with 1.5 million people inflicted yearly. Several neurotherapeutic interventions have been proposed in TBI including drug administration as well as cellular therapy involving neural stem cell (NSC)-based treatment. Among the proposed drugs utilized is docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a poly-unsaturated fatty acid, exhibiting neuroprotective properties. In this study, we propose to use an innovative intervention of neonatal NSCs transplantation in combination with DHA injections in order to ameliorate brain damage and promote functional recovery. Thus, NSCs derived from the subventricular zone of neonatal pups were cultured into neurospheres and transplanted in the cortex of an experimentally controlled cortical impact mouse model of TBI. The effect of NSC transplantation was assessed alone and/or in combination with DHA administration. Motor deficits were evaluated using pole climbing and rotarod tests. Using immunohistochemistry, the effect of transplanted NSCs and DHA treatment was assessed by quantification of doublecortin (DCX), glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP), ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule (IBA-1), and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) markers. Combined NSC transplantation and DHA injections significantly attenuated TBI-induced motor function deficits (pole climbing test), promoted neurogenesis, coupled with an increase in glial reactivity at the cortical site of injury. In addition, a marked increase in the number of dopaminergic neurons was observed in the ventral tegmental area and the substantia nigra in the double treated group. Immunoblotting analysis indicated that DHA/NSC treatment showed decreased proteolysis of the αII-spectrin 145 kDa SBDP and in the 38 kDa GFAP-BDP indicative of attenuated calpain/caspase activation. These data demonstrate that prior treatment with DHA may be a desirable strategy to improve therapeutic efficacy of NSC transplantation in TBI.

With the advent of Next Generation Sequencing we have seen a rapid increase not only of genomic information but also of annotation information that can be naturally mapped to genomic locations. This includes first of all transcriptome data. Over the last few years, however, also a very diverse set of aspects have become the target of large-scale experiments with a genome wide readout. Therefore, the identification of functional units of the genomic DNA considered as significant and important challenge. Subsequently, the identification of intervals of the genomic DNA that behave coherently in multiple conditions and tissues form the first objective for our research, and can be done first by one-dimensional segmentation [1] for each data set separately, and then applying multidimensional segmentation for all datasets to identify functional unit in the intersection segments.

Lung cancer remains by far the single most common cause of cancer-related mortality with nearly 1.59 million deaths worldwide. The two major forms of lung cancer are non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC, about 85% of all lung cancers) and small-cell lung cancer (about 15%). Despite advances in early detection and standard treatment, NSCLC is often diagnosed at an advanced stage and has a poor prognosis. Therefore, new therapeutic agents are urgently needed for controlling lung cancer. Natural products have been commonly used in the prevention and treatment of many cancers. Berberis libanotica is an important medicinal plant that is endemic to Lebanon and belongs to Berberidaceae, grows at high altitudes under stringent conditions. Alkaloids represent a very wide range of secondary metabo¬lites with important biological activities and they consti¬tute the major class of compounds reported to exist in Berberis libanotica in particular . Berberine, Berbamine and Palmatine. Only three studies have shown that extracts of roots of B. libanotica possess antitumoral effects on two types of cancer cell lines (leukemia, and prostate cancer), therefore, our work aimed at the evaluation of the response of human NSCLC cell line A549 to Berberis libanotica root ethanolic and dichloromethane extracts, taking into consideration the difference in the percentage of active components in two extracts. Our data indicate that both Berberis libanotica ethanolic and dichloromethane extracts exhibited anti-neoplastic effects by inducing a significant reduction in the viability of this cell line in a time- and dose- dependent manner, whereby the ethanolic extract (IC50 = 300 μg/mL at 72 hours) showed a higher potency than the dichloromethane one (IC50 = 400 µg/mL at 72 hours). Our results from the wound-healing assay showed a significant decrease in the ability of A549 cells to migrate ( as compared to controls, at concentrations of 200µg/mL, the wound reduced by 31% when treated with ethanolic extract, and by 43.4% with the dichloromethane extract), suggesting a role in inhibiting local infiltration or even metastasis. Interestingly, we showed that after treatment with the dichloromethane extract, VEGF levels were lower than those of control after 72 hours, but not after 48 hours. However, the level of VEGF protein decreased upon treatment with the ethanolic extract at concentrations of 100 and 200µg/mL after 48 and 72 hours, whereas VEGF expression was upregulated at the concentration of 400 µg /mL at both time intervals also. Moreover, both Berberis libanotica extracts exhibited the ability to induce DNA fragmentation, characteristic of apoptosis in A549 cells. Our data also revealed perturbations of the cell cycle, leading to a high increase in the G2/M peak in response to treatment with Berberis libanotica ethanolic and dichloromethane extracts, suggesting an arrest at the G2/M phase due to the treatment. This arrest, which is exhibited at 800 μg/mL of both extracts treatment, coincides with the DNA fragmentation phenomenon. In conclusion, our results showed that treatment with both ethanolic and dichloromethane extracts from the roots of Berberis libanotica have interesting anti-tumor activities against non-small cell lung cancer A549 cell line. They were able to reduce viability, inhibit cell proliferation and migration, and induce DNA fragmentation of the cells. Further studies should be conducted to unravel the dynamics of the cellular upregulation of VEGF level at high concentrations of treatment. In conclusion, Berberis libanotica might serve as a preventive and therapeutic tool for non-small cell lung cancer.

Depuis la description de Kanner en 1943, le champ de l'autisme suscite de nombreux travaux et débats. Les travaux des dernières années ont mis en évidence chez les enfants présentant un trouble du spectre autistique (TSA), des anomalies du fonctionnement du système nerveux et ont amené à considérer l'autisme comme un trouble du développement se manifestant le plus souvent dès les premiers mois de vie (LeLord et al. , 2003). Ce trouble neuro-développemental, altère très précocement, les capacités de l'enfant à interagir avec autrui et à développer les moyens habituels de communication et d'adaptation à l'environnement. Ainsi, les troubles de la communication et du langage apparaissent comme les critères diagnostics incontournables des Troubles du Spectre Autistique. L'orthophoniste, professionnel de la communication, se trouve alors au cœur du réseau tissé autour de la personne autiste. Les professionnels, en particulier les orthophonistes devraient disposer d'outils d'évaluation objectifs dans le but de déterminer le profil clinique de l'enfant, mettre en place des soins adaptés et suivre objectivement l'efficacité de ces soins. En 2012, la Haute Autorité de Santé en France a insisté sur la nécessité d'une intervention précoce focalisée et globale de la communication dont la Thérapie d'Échange et de Développement (TED). La TED se conçoit comme une rééducation des fonctions élémentaires de la communication qui constitue de façon tout à fait consensuelle le centre d'intérêt de l'orthophoniste. Cette thérapie vise à rééduquer sur la base de séquences de jeu social structuré les fonctions sous-tendues par les systèmes cérébraux de la communication sociale (Blanc et al., 2013). Au Liban, le manque d'outils standardisés et de protocoles valides ne permet pas de mettre en place des pratiques fondées sur des preuves adaptées à la population libanaise compte tenu de la complexité du TSA et de l'hétérogénéité des expressions cliniques pouvant confronter le clinicien, notamment l'orthophoniste, à une incertitude dans sa démarche d'évaluation et de suivi. Ceci a des répercussions majeures sur la qualité des interventions et des projets de soins mis en place (Kouba Hreich et al., à paraitre). Les parents d'enfants TSA au Liban se trouvent alors perdus face à cette situation où manque le contrôle étatique de l'offre thérapeutique. Dans ce contexte, notre étude vise à estimer l'application de la Thérapie d'Échange et de Développement (TED) à l'intervention pré verbale comme première piste d'intervention des orthophonistes. Notre étude a été menée dans le cadre d'une école spécialisée au Liban, « Classes orange ». L'étude portant sur six mois concerne onze enfants avec autisme âgés de 3 ans 9 mois à 6 ans (M (Mois)= 56; ET = 8. 22) dont l'autisme peut être sévère (M score CARS = 45.41), associé à une déficience intellectuelle modérée (N= 4) ou sévère (N=7). Ces enfants bénéficient de la TED à raison de deux séances par semaine. Le protocole comprend des évaluations fonctionnelles des comportements autistiques et des compétences linguistiques à trois temps: T0 en amont de la prise en charge, T1: à 3 mois d'intervalle et T2: à six mois d'intervalle. Les résultats comparatifs (début TED / fin TED) obtenus à l'aide de l'Échelle d'Évaluation des Comportements Autistiques - Révisée (ECA-R) (Lelord et Barthélémy, 1989; Barthélémy et Lelord, 1991) ont mis en évidence une évolution significative des scores des 11 enfants de notre population entre T0, T1 et T2 (M Sc.global ECA-R Individuel: T0=71.73, T1=62.91, T2 = 60.36; M Sc.global ECA-R Groupe T0=83.64, T1=75.18, T2= 68.82). Ainsi, au bout de six mois de thérapie, la sévérité des comportements autistiques a significativement diminué, notamment dans la dimension liée à la déficience relationnelle (DR). Le score de « déficience relationnelle » renvoie à la dimension principale de la symptomatologie autistique, à savoir, le déficit des interactions et de la communication sociale (M sc.DR individuel: T0=35.45, T1 32.36, T2:30.91 ; M sc.DR groupe: T0=41.18, T1=37.55, T2=34.36). De même, l'analyse des scores de sévérité des comportements autistiques observés à l'ECA-R selon les six fonctions privilégiées en TED (l'attention, le contact, l'imitation, la perception, la communication et l'intention) met en évidence une évolution au niveau des fonctions pivots de la communication sociale aussi bien en situation individuelle qu'en situation de groupe. Notre étude nous a également permis de démontrer que la rééducation de ces fonctions neurophysiologiques dans le cadre des remédiations en TED entraine la dynamisation des capacités socio-communicatives et l'émergence de la communication préverbale et verbale chez les enfants autistes libanais. En effet, l'évaluation détaillée du développement des habiletés socio-communicatives des enfants réalisée à partir de la liste de contrôle du modèle d'intervention précoce de Denver, met en évidence une évolution significative au niveau de toutes les rubriques testées. Nous observons une nette augmentation des scores exprimés en pourcentage de réussite. Nous relevons chez les onze enfants de notre étude: - un enrichissement de la communication réceptive (T0=26%, T2=55%) et expressive (T0=19%, T2= 47%), - une émergence des capacités imitatives (T0=10%, T2=36%) - une amélioration significative des compétences sociales (T0= 23%, T2=65%). Notre étude a de même démontré que le retard mental associé à l'autisme de nos enfants n'avait pas une influence sur leur évolution. Dans le même sens, les effets thérapeutiques ont été démontrés chez tous les enfants de notre population présentant des profils assez variés au niveau de la sévérité du trouble autistique. Malgré les profils évolutifs différenciés d'un enfant à un autre, ces résultats soulignent un effet important de ces thérapeutiques même auprès des enfants sévèrement atteints. Grace à ces rééducations neuro-fonctionnelles, basées sur une approche développementale de la communication sociale, l'enfant développe ses habiletés d'échange, de réciprocité, de communication et de langage. Ces constations ne pourraient qu'intéresser l'orthophoniste, professionnel de la communication, puisque ces interventions constituent un enjeu majeur de soins à utiliser comme première piste d'intervention dans la prise en charge des patients avec un trouble du spectre autistique .

This paper presents an analytical modeling of a permanent magnet induction generator. This study will include many parameters related to the performance and the design of induction generator like cogging torque which is the interaction between the permanent magnet surface mounted on the rotor and the teeth of the stator, air gap design, and magnetic equivalent circuit in order to study the flux, magnet equivalent width, Carters coefficient, and flux density distribution. With the beginning of the 21 century, many communities started "THINK GREEN ", which became a trend, because of the dangerous effect of the usage of oil in industries and specially in the generation of the electrical power where large quantities of polluting gases are liberated in the air causing diseases. For that "THINK GREEN "had a large acceptance in different societies. "THINK GREEN " is just a quote, it means the usage of renewable energy sources present in the nature like the sun ,wind , water in a beneficial way . All these renewable sources can help us in order to get electricity for zero percent pollution.

One of the green sources is the wind turbine generator, where we can produce up to 10 MW from a space of 100 m square without any polluting emissions using the power of wind. This kind of generators had a large turnout in last few years because of its effectiveness in many domains like delivering power for rural areas , generating power from dead places like the sea by implementing these turbines, for example the LONDON array in the United Kingdom which produce about 630 MW of power .

In the domain of renewable energy, induction generators have a large popularity because of their advantages [1].

But in the same time these kinds of generators have some disadvantages concerning power factor, voltage regulation and efficiency. All these problems can be solved with the usage of permanent magnet induction generator [2] [3].

Permanent magnet induction generator (PMIG) is a new generation of induction generators where it is specialized by the surface mounted magnet on the rotor. PMIG can be divided into 3 kinds where they will be explained in the following sections.

B. Different types of PMIG Radial flux permanent magnet: Radial flux permanent magnet are those machines that produce the magnetic flux in the 'r' direction for the permanent magnet excitation where the stator is designed with electrical grade steel lamination with distributed winding [4][5]. This kind has a high torque /mass ratio, small outer radius and easier for the design of the air gap as shown in figure 1.

Axial flux permanent magnet: Axial flux machines are those that produce the flux in the z direction which is parallel to the axis of the generator. For that it is named axial flux This kind of permanent magnet induction generator has low cogging torque, simple winding, short axial length and higher torque/volume ratio than the radial flux induction generators as shown in figure 1.

Transverse flux permanent magnet: Transverse flux permanent magnet induction generators are those where the flux direction is perpendicular to the direction of the rotation of the rotor. These kinds of machines have enough space for the winding compared to the other kind of permanent machines. They have a high torque [6]

Energy demands of the modern society spend a great amount of technological effort and capital to renewables. Renewables are now cost-competitive with fossil fuels in many markets and are established around the world as mainstream sources of energy [1]. Wind power was the leading source of new power generating capacity in Europe and the United States in 2015, and the second largest in China. Globally, a record 63 GW was added for a total of about 433 GW [1]. The permanent magnet synchronous generators are becoming the most popular used generators in wind turbines. They provide the ideal solution to the wind industry by being less noisy, highly efficient and have a long life span. Moreover, axial flux permanent magnet generators are very compact, light and their high ratio of the diameter to axial length, allows the integration of direct driven machine in the nacelle of wind turbines. During recent years, a lot of researches and development have been conducted to be able to model the magnetic field distribution in electromagnetic machines. Extensive modeling of the electromagnetic field distribution has become a crucial step in the design process for developing electromagnetic devices and machines [2].To facilitate the design and analysis of PM machines, a precise computation of the magnetic field distribution in the different machine regions is required. In our study, the axial flux topology is clearly three-dimensional, because of both the curvature effect, and edge effects in the radial direction. In order to simplify the three-dimensional assumption, it is reduced in a two-dimensional assumption, and this is developed by cutting it with a cylindrical plane at its mean radius. Starting the model, a 2-D solution of the Maxwell's equations in low permeability regions (slots, slot opening, air gap, permanent magnets adjacent to the air gap and moving armature slots), is applied using the separation of variables method. The magnetic potential and magnetic field vectors expressions are developed as a Fourier series in each region, leading to a calculation of the slot effects on the air gap magnetic quantities. The boundary conditions are then taken into account leading to a set of linear equations allowing determining the vector potential and magnetic field coefficients in the different regions. Then, the expressions of the global quantities (EMF, cogging torque) are derived from the expression of the local magnetic field distribution.

During its lifetime, the concrete is subjected to instantaneous, shrinkage and creep deformations. The latter occurs when the structure is subjected to a sustained load and its impact increases with time. Creep deformations have an important effect on the behavior of concrete structures and their long term integrity. Incorrect or inaccurate prediction of creep deformations leads to undesirable and harmful consequences for the structures. Therefore, an accurate prediction of the creep compliance reveals a necessity for the safety of concrete structures. An evaluation of the Eurocode 2 creep model prediction is performed in order to validate the accuracy of the Eurocode 2 creep predictions. Moreover, since the Eurocode 2 does not take the effect of admixtures into consideration in predicting the creep compliance, a study of the influence of admixtures on creep is performed. Admixtures are additions to a concrete mixture that can help in controlling the setting time and other properties of concrete. The use of admixtures facilitates the control of concrete and can improve its performance by modifying its characteristics and enhancing workability. Based on a large database collected from international laboratories and research centers, a comparison between the experimental creep and the predicted one by the Eurocode 2 is performed using statistical methods. Since the admixtures have an important effect on concrete and each type of admixtures have a different impact, this comparison is performed separately on concrete without admixtures and on concrete containing different types of admixtures. An inaccurate estimation of the creep compliance is detected for both categories of concrete, with and without admixtures. Also, for concrete incorporating admixtures, this inaccuracy depends on the type of admixture used. The use of silica fume as admixture in the concrete mix leads to an overestimation of the creep compliance while the use of a combination of silica fumes and water reducer as admixtures leads to an underestimation of the creep compliance. In order to overcome this difference between the predicted and the real creep compliance, a calibration of the Eurocode 2 creep model is required by adding corrective coefficients to the Eurocode 2 equations. These corrective coefficients take into consideration the type and percentage of admixtures. The Approximate Bayesian Computation method based on the rejection algorithm was applied in order to calculate these coefficients. The Bayesian calibration provides an automated process for calibrating models by multiplying the expert knowledge known as a priori distribution by the likelihood coming from the database. The a priori distribution incorporates the uncertainty of the parameters that shall be calibrated. The objective is to refine these probability distributions by comparing the results coming from the Bayesian update to the experimental measurements. In the calibration processes, it is important to distinguish variables from parameters. The variables are input data that are known but variable in times, while parameters are unknown constant data modeled by a priori distribution. By multiplying the likelihood function with the a priori distribution, an a posteriori distribution will be obtained which will be an update of the knowledge already known by using the latest database provided. The basic of Bayesian updating is Bayes Theorem. Different methods of Bayesian calibration may be used according to the available information on the likelihood function. In this study, the Approximate Bayesian Computation method based on the rejection algorithm is applied. After implementing the obtained corrective coefficients to the Eurocode 2 compliance equation, and in order to evaluate our updated Eurocode 2 creep model, the CEB statistical methods are applied. An improvement in the results is clearly shown. Using the large experimental database, this study demonstrates the importance of the Bayesian model assessment for the updating of the Eurocode 2 creep model, taking into account the effect of the admixtures. The adoption of such a design approach would improve long-term serviceability of structures subject to creep.

This paper presents a novel low cost 3D magnetic probe which reduces the large scanning time of the existing near field scanning systems and increases the spatial resolution. The paper focuses on the design, calibration and validation of a printed circuit 3D magnetic field probe. The proposed probe is printed on both sides an FR4 substrate of 3.2mm height. The total dimensions of the probe are 9x9x3.2mm3. The antenna factor of the designed probes is calculated using TEM cell for a frequency range from 10 MHz to 1 GHz. The proposed scanning system is validated by mapping the magnetic field above a wire over ground structure.

Green concrete is the main target of this research. The objective is to provide a cement-based material that has an acceptable performance as a construction material while saving on natural resources. This research focuses on using wood bottom ash as a partial substitute for cement or sand in different cement, and concrete based mixes, in addition to soil cement stabilization mixes. Wood ash is a waste generated from biomass activity, where renewable wood material is abundant. Cement based and concrete mixes are highly demanded materials for construction sites, locally and worldwide. The preliminary results of locally collected wood bottom ash in cement mixes indicate the potential use of such mixes in non-structural applications where low to medium strength cement mortar or concrete is favored. Such low to medium strength material may be used in soil improvement, backfill, pavement layers remedy, and other activities, where structural safety is not of major concern. Besides, Plaxis 2D software was used in order to model the stabilization of subgrade clay layers in pavement using ash, in terms of settlement reduction.

Brain Computer Interface research has been lately improving. Lots of research based on signals (Electric, Magnetic, etc…) processing has been done to provide solutions for human machine communication. Lately, lots of work has been done for the recognition of a set of unspoken words with the goal of providing a good BCI which can recognize an unspoken word directly in real time through electrodes fixed on the scalp of a subject. Our work is based on the construction of a Brain Computer Interface which aims at helping handicapped people to interact with the outside world through unspoken speech; i.e., the subject will think of a word as if he is speaking it. A bibliographic study was done on several methods on each phase of the BCI (Data Acquisition, Preprocessing, Feature Extraction and Classification). Data Acquisition: The first phase of the construction of a BCI consists of acquiring the signals from the brain of a subject through invasive or noninvasive methods. By invasive methods, we mean that the acquisition needs chirurgical intervention which could be dangerous. Despite other methods of acquisition for the signals, in our work, we use a noninvasive method which is electroencephalographic as it is the most common in such domain of research. This provides portability of the acquisition of the signal and is completely safe for the subject without the need of medical intervention. Specific materials can be used to obtain the signals from the scalp of the subject. In our case, it was done through electrode fixed on the scalp of the subject capturing the electrical flow from the brain. For that, we bought a Headset Emotiv Epoc+ with 14 channels covering all the scalp. This process consisted of putting the subject in a specific environment where he watched a video we had prepared for him and he followed the instructions mentioned in it. In that session, we used markers to indicate the start and the end of each thought of word, knowing that each sessions consisted of a repetition of 33 times the imagined pronunciation of the same word. Preprocessing: After the process of acquisition, we established an algorithm to import and store the data to create a database containing all the data features for each of the words we fixed. That algorithm consisted of importing the signals into Matlab in the first place. Then, in the preprocessing phase of the construction of a BCI, we applied the method of Common Average Reference on all the channels for each session to reduce the noise and eliminate the artifacts in ours signals. Feature Extraction: After being preprocessed, it was essential to cut the signals acquired in the first phase into sub signals (windows) using the markers sent into the signals as mentioned before. Then, a database with EEG windows representing words was formed. These windows that constituted the EEG data values are then submitted to the third phase of the construction of a BCI which is the feature extraction. To extract features from signals, we used the Discrete Wavelet Transform, one of many methods that exist on this topic. It decomposes a signal in input into sub signal by filtering the high frequencies from the low frequencies where each sub band of the signals contains half of the frequency samples of the neighboring higher sub band which is related to the number of levels provided by the user. After applying the Discrete Wavelet Transform, the signal is decomposed into rough approximation and detailed information. The approximation is then decomposed using the same step of decomposition. At the end of the decomposition we found ourselves with a signal decomposed into sub bands. At that stage, we computes the features which are relevant in the domain of signal analysis such as (Wavelet Length, Variance, Standard Deviation and the Energy of the signal). Then all of these features are then concatenated to form the feature vector. That process was done on each of the windows in the database and the feature vector replaced the rows containing the EEG data of the window. After constructing the database, accessing the data from it became simpler due to the structure which provided for the user the possibility to choose the signals of his interest related to the name of the subject, the word, the sessions and the channels.This can be useful to construct the input data table with their classes to reach the classification phase of a BCI. Classification: The classification is the last phase of the BCI. It consists of classifying inputs into their proper classes (words). There are two categories of classifiers: linear and nonlinear classifiers. From these we cite, Support Vector Machine classifier which are categorized as linear classifier as they classify by using hyper planes separators or Random Forest and Artificial Neural Network which are nonlinear classifier. In our case, we used the Artificial Neural Network in two forms, one containing three layers (Input, Hidden and Output Layers) and the other containing four layers (Input, Hidden, Computing and Output Layers). The classification in our work is a process done after the construction of the database. We import the data of interest from the database related to the name of the subject, the word, the session and the channels signals in our interest. Then we make a target Matrix containing the class ID for each word related to the rows in the input data table containing the feature vector constructed as we explained before. The Artificial Neural network consists of two main phases. First, we must train the network to minimize the error of the recognition of the words. For that, ANN needs large size of data for the learning process. In the training phases, the network learn each row of the data table and specify it to the right classes. The second phase of the ANN is the Testing/Validation of the trained networks. This phase consists of testing the efficiency and the performance of the network in recognizing the imagined words. Conclusion: Our work consists of two main processes. The first aims to construct a structured database containing the features of the signals acquired using the EEG signals as it is the most common method. After the acquisition, we used the Common Average Reference method to enhance our signals as it provides good result in the noise elimination process. Then we used the Wavelet Packet Transform, which is widely used for non-stationary signals like EEG signals, for the construction of the feature vectors. The second process aims to configure the neural network to classify our data and establish our recognition system. This work provides us with good results in the classification process. Our future works are to improve our results by testing other feature extraction, preprocessing and classification methods or combine them into our algorithm.

Nowadays, it is imperative to use deep pile foundations to support high rise buildings with profound basements that require extensive soil excavation resulting in huge stress relief. Usually, the capacity of a pile is studied without taking into consideration stress relief. However, the effect of stress relief resulting from basement excavation should be taken into consideration for deep excavations by modifying the initial geotechnical stress in order to find the best pile foundation design in terms of performance and economy. This research studies the axial behavior of piles in deep excavation with stress relief. The capacity of a pile in an excavation will depend then on the geotechnical properties of the soil, the height of the excavated soil, the dimensions of the excavation, as well as the position of the pile with respect to the excavation dimensions. The research is based on single bored piles in cohesionless formation having a uniform soil layer. The calculation is based on the soil's plastic parameters and the skin friction is governed by the horizontal effective stress. The numerical modeling was done on MATLAB based on the finite difference method for the settlement along with t-z and q-z curves. The numerical model was verified using axisymmetric finite element modeling on PLAXIS 2D. A parametric study using MATLAB was done to compare pile capacity function of its length, the excavation's depth, the soil's friction angle, and the position of the pile in the excavation.

Introduction Vu que l'énergie et les problèmes environnementaux deviennent de plus en plus graves, la recherche d'une nouvelle ressource énergétique propre, à faible émission de carbone et à haute densité énergétique est devenue nécessaire. L'hydrogène est l'un des candidats les plus aptes à substituer l'énergie fossile. La production d'hydrogène par reformage des hydrocarbures est une voie intéressante. Parmi les hydrocarbures présents, le toluène attire l'attention. Le toluène est toxique, provoque des troubles cardiaques dans le système nerveux, cardiaque et digestif, il est présent dans les émissions de plusieurs processus tels que l'impression, le pressage et les industries pétrochimiques. De plus, le toluène est l'un des principaux composants du goudron (24%) formé par la gazéification de la biomasse il est donc pertinent de diminuer ses émissions dans l'atmosphère. La technique d'élimination des polluants par reformage catalytique offre de multiples avantages. En revanche, l'utilisation d'un catalyseur est connue pour être importante et permet d'améliorer la production d'hydrogène à partir du procédé de reformage et abaisse significativement la température de traitement. Les hydroxydes doubles lamellaires (HDL) connus sous le nom de composées hydrotalcites (HT) sont largement utilisés en catalyse hétérogène. Leur traitement thermique permet la formation d'oxydes métalliques mixtes à grandes surfaces spécifique et une bonne stabilité thermique Dans ce travail, trois oxydes mixtes Ni6Al2, Ni6Al1,8Ce0,2 et Ni6Al1,8La0,2 sont préparés et caractérisés par différentes techniques physico-chimiques (DRX, ATD/ATG, IRTF, BET, TPR, DTP-CO2), puis testés dans la réaction de reformage à sec du toluène. Expérimental Une solution aqueuse contenant les quantités appropriées de nitrate des éléments (Ni, Al, Ce et La) est ajoutée goutte à goutte à 200 mL d'eau déminéralisée dont le pH est ajusté, à l'aide de la solution de 2M NaOH/1M Na2CO3, entre 9,5 et 10. La solution obtenue est ensuite mélangée à 60˚C pendant 1 heure, puis placée dans un four 18 heures. Le précipité ainsi obtenu est ensuite filtré, lavé plusieurs fois avec de l'eau déminéralisée chaude (60°C) et séché dans une étuve à 60°C pendant 48 heures. Les échantillons sont calcinés à 800˚C sous flux d'air (2L.h-1). Les catalyseurs sont caractérisés par différentes techniques puis testés dans la réaction de reformage à sec du toluène. Le réacteur est alimenté avec un mélange gazeux composé de 2100 ppm de C7H8 avec un rapport CO2/C7H8 = 7 dilué dans l'argon. Le débit total est 100 ml.min-1. L'analyse des gaz en sortie du réacteur s'effectue par chromatographie en phase gazeuse (Varian 3800). Les produits principaux sont analysés avec un détecteur TCD alors que les sous-produits et le toluène n'ayant pas réagi sont surveillés en utilisant un détecteur FID. Résultats et discussion La réductibilité des hydrotalcites calcinées à 800ºC est étudiée par réduction en température programmée (RTP) (Figure 1). L'addition du cérium provoque le déplacement des pics de réduction vers des températures inférieures ce qui indique que la réduction de NiO est favorisée par la présence des espèces Ce. L'effet promoteur est causé par l'existence de paires redox Ce3+/Ce4+, qui permettent le transfert d'électrons et favorisent ainsi la réduction des espèces Ni-oxyde dans les sites voisins. L'addition de lanthane a conduit à une augmentation de la température de réduction indiquant une forte interaction entre le nickel et le support modifié au lanthane. Les résultats du Tableau I montrent que la basicité des solides dépend de la présence de promoteur (Ce ou La). En effet, l'addition du cérium et du lanthane augmente la basicité des catalyseurs. On peut également déduire du tableau I que la meilleure activité est obtenue pour le catalyseur non promu. L'ajout du cérium ou du lanthane n'a pas amélioré la conversion du toluène mais est intervenu au niveau du mécanisme réactionnel pour améliorer la sélectivité tout en réduisant le dépôt de coke. Les lanthanides (Ce et La) sont suggérés pour être de bons promoteurs car ils peuvent accentuer l'adsorption du CO2 sur le support ce qui réduit la formation de carbone déposé (CO2 + C = 2CO). La formation de dépôt de carbone n'est pas favorisée en présence du support possédant de fortes basicités. Conclusion Les catalyseurs testés sont actifs lors de la réaction de reformage à sec du toluène. Ni6Al2 présente la meilleure conversion en toluène. L'effet d'ajout de promoteur est parvenu au niveau de la sélectivité et du dépôt de carbone.

Exposure to air pollution remains a major health risk, mainly in the developing countries. Particulate matter (PM) is a complex toxicological concern and this toxicity occurs primarily by fine and ultrafine particles due to their physical and chemical characteristics. On the basis of the close relationship between human exposure to high concentrations of fine particles (PM2.5) and increase lung cancer mortality, PM was recently classified as a Group I carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (Loomis et al., 2014). Considering that PM is highly heterogeneous, the potential health risks of PM2.5 promoting respiratory diseases and lung cancer, as well as its chemical characteristics, remain elusive; and the genotoxic mechanisms induced by PM2.5 are not fully identified. Northern Lebanon is affected by several sources of pollution, such as cement factories and quarries, phosphate fertilizer industry, transport section, and other human activities. However, toxicity, and knowledge about air pollutants and their impact on health remains very patchy in the region.

The aim of this work is to study the health impact of the atmospheric particulates in Northern Lebanon. This was achieved by: i) examining the levels of perceived air pollution annoyance and health risk and evaluating the relationship between respiratory diseases and industrial activities; ii) characterizing the fine particulate matter (PM2.5-0.3) samples collected in background area or an area under industrial influence; and iii) assessing the mutagenic and genotoxic effects of the collected particles.

The survey conducted in two areas in Northern Lebanon, rural and industrial (310 treatable questionnaires/area), showed significant differences between the inhabitants' perceptions and therefore an indicator of the real situation in these areas. This survey confirmed the seriousness of the situation at the industrial area. It reveals the opinion of the inhabitants of the industrial area regarding air pollution from industrial activities in terms of its effect on their quality of life, health and identifying this attitude of nuisance from industrial emissions. The answers were affected by many factors such as working in the industries, the distance from the industries, seeing and feeling the industrial emissions. People who are accustomed to relatively poor air quality seemed to be more sensitive to questions on air quality perceptions. Moreover, the epidemiological part of this survey confirmed the significant association between living in the proximity of industries and respiratory symptoms and diseases. Preliminary evidence suggested that industrial air pollution may be a risk factor for the increase in breathlessness, asthma, allergies and heart problems at the industrial site. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed that people's perception about air quality is conditioned not only by the surrounding environmental parameters but also by their health state and their past illnesses. Therefore, our results showed the annoyance and health consequences of living in the vicinity of industries. Hence, to contribute to fulfill the gap of knowledge about the pulmonary toxicity of particulate matter and the mechanisms of action involved in the carcinogenicity, the study of physicochemical characteristics and toxicological endpoints of PM2.5-0.3 collected in background area and an area under industrial influence were performed. Physicochemical analyses of the collected particles evidenced similar characteristics in major species. In particular, slightly higher levels of PAHs and trace metals and up to 125 times' higher dioxins concentrations at the vicinity of industries were shown. Our results evidenced the influence of numerous combustion sources (diesel, gasoline, coal and biomass burning); waste combustion and other industrial processes are also suspected. A more pronounced genotoxic and mutagenic potential was evidenced after exposure to particles collected at the vicinity of industries when compared to the rural ones, using the Ames fluctuation test and SOS chromotest. The effects of the collected particles are probably related to their organic composition. In order to assess the underlying toxic mechanisms, human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) were then exposed to different concentrations of the sampled PM2.5 0.3. Genotoxicity mechanisms such as metabolic activation of organic compounds (CYP1A1) and consecutive DNA damages such as DNA strands breaks (γH2AX quantification by flow cytometry analysis and in-cell western assay) were induced by the two samples of PM2.5 0.3, with a more pronounced effect of industrial particles. Moreover, PM showed tendency to alter the DNA repair process (OGG1, NTH1, APE1, NUDT1, DNMT1, MGMT, XPA, XRRC1 gene expression and PARP1, DNMT1, OGG1 proteins expression). DNA repair mechanisms were repressed up to 48h of exposure to PM especially to the industrial influenced PM2.5-0.3 due to their content in metals and reactivated after 72h of exposure due to the activation of PAHs. The DNA damages involve bulky DNA adducts, oxidative stress damages, DNA strand breaks and methylation.

These results suggest mutagenic, genotoxic and epigenetic mechanisms of action involved in the carcinogenicity of fine particles, partly related to their organic composition.

An optimized analytical method was developed for the simultaneous screening of 90 pesticides, 16 PAHs and 22 PCBs. The method was based on QuEChERS extraction using ACN followed by a d-SPE cleanup using primary secondary amine (PSA) and octadecyl (C18). Analytical instruments used included liquid chromatography/triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and gas chromatography/ion-trap mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). This latest one was preceded by a pre-concentration step using solid phase microextraction (SPME) with appropriate fibers. The combination of the two extraction step ensured efficient extract purification. The use of the two analytical instruments allowed the analysis of the large number of desired pollutants with a high rate of reliability. The developed method was validated for linearity which was determined using matrix-matched calibration curves in a range between 10 and 3000 ng g−1. The obtained correlation coefficient (R2) was higher than 0.98 for all target compounds with a RSD lower than 20% for repeatability and reproducibility. LODs and LOQs were respectively lower than 20 ng g-1 and 60 ng g-1 for the analyzed compounds.

Calamintha origanifolia (Labill.) Boiss. plante endémique libanaise, est une plante aromatique et médicinale. Elle est riche en huile essentielle. L'analyse qualitative et quantitative de la composition de l'huile essentielle par le gaz chromatoghraphe a permis l'identification de 72 composants chimiques dont 3 sont majoritaires: isomenthone (11%), limonène (2.80%) et pulegone (2.41%) alors que d'autres composants se trouvent en faible quatité. Le pulegone est un monoterpene cétone avec une odeur rafraîchissante rappelant celui de la menthe. La teneur en pulegone dans les huiles essentielles de plantes de la famille des Lamiacea poussant au Liban est relativement plus faible que celles poussant en Europe, ce qui rend les plantes libanaises moins toxiques. Ceci pourrait être dû aux variétés existantes et à la diversité agro climatique dont profite le pays. Calamintha origanifolia possède des composants pouvant aller jusqu'à des traces. Ces constituants mineurs favorisent un effet synergétique avec les constituants majeurs pour jouer un rôle déterminant sur le plan d'utilisation médicinale ou autres (Hilan C. Rabiha Sfeir & al. 2006). Les résultats ont montré un effet bactériostatique de l'huile du Calamintha origanifolia sur le Bacillus cereus et un effet bactériolytique sur les autres germes pathogènes. Ainsi sur le Bacillus cereus l'inhibition n'est perceptible qu'après 10 minutes et 1 heure de contact avec l'huile, ensuite la multiplication reprend normalement, alors que sur des germes comme Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella sofia, Candida albicans et Penicillium spp. l'inhibition est totale après 1 heure et 24 heures. L'huile du Calamintha origanifolia a montré à faible concentration une meilleure efficacité (100% inhibition) que les antibiotiques. D'une facon générale, les plantes médicinales au Liban, constituent une richesse abandonnée, mal conservée et mal exploitée. Et l'exploitation de cette richesse agricole pourrait être bénifique sur le plan économique, dans le secteur industriel (cosmétique et parfurmerie) et sur le plan pharmaceutique.

The widely used organophosphorus pesticide chlorpyrifos (CPF) is often detected in food. CPF inhibits acetylcholinesterase and can modify muscle contractility and respiratory patterns. In children, the effects of pre- and postnatal exposure to CPF are not known. We aimed to determine the effects of prenatal and postnatal exposure to CPF on in vivo respiratory and sleep parameters and in vitro diaphragm contractility in juvenile and adult rats. Pregnant rats were orally gavaged with CPF (1 or 5 mg/kg/day; CPF1 or CPF5) or organic rapeseed oil (a control) until weaning on postnatal day 21 (PND21). Rat pups were then orally gavaged with the same CPF doses until PND60. Whole-body plethysmography was used to score breathing patterns and the apnea index during sleep on PND21 (juveniles) and PND60 (adults). After the plethysmographic measurements, diaphragm strips were dissected for the in vitro assessment of contractility and acetylcholinesterase activity at PND21 and PND60. At both ages, the sleep apnea index was higher in CPF-exposed rats than in controls. In adults, the expiratory time and tidal volume were higher in CPF-exposed animals than in controls, whereas the respiratory frequency was lower. At both ages, the diaphragm's amplitude of contraction and fatigability index were higher in the CPF5 group, due to lower acetylcholinesterase activity. In conclusion, perinatal exposure to CPF (an organophosphorus pesticide widely detected in food) is associated with a higher sleep apnea index and diaphragm contractility, and significantly modifies respiratory patterns in sleeping juvenile and adult rats.

Bacillus thuringiensis can produce a floating biofilm which includes two parts: a ring and a pellicle. The ring is a thick structure which sticks to the culture container, while the pellicle extends over the whole liquid surface and joins the ring. We have followed over time, from 16 to 96 h, sporulation in the two biofilm parts. Sporulation was followed in situ in 48-wells polystyrene microtiterplates with a fluorescence binocular stereomicroscope and a spoIID-yfp transcriptional fusion. Sporulation took place much earlier in the ring than in the pellicle. In 20 h-aged biofilms, spoIID was expressed only in the ring, which could be seen as a green fluorescent circle surrounding the nonfluorescent pellicle. However, after 48 h of culture, the pellicle started to express spoIID in specific area corresponding to protrusions, and after 96 h both the ring and the whole pellicle expressed spoIID. Spore counts and microscopy observations of the ring and the pellicle harvested separately confirmed these results and revealed that sporulation occured 24 h-later in the pellicle comparatively to the ring, although both structures contained nearly 100% spores after 96 h of culture. We hypothesize that two mechanisms, due to microenvironments in the biofilm, can explain this difference. First, the ring experiences a decreased concentration of nutrients earlier than the pellicle, because of a lower exchange area with the culture medium. An second, the ring is exposed to partial dryness. Both reasons could speed up sporulation in this biofilm structure. Our results also suggest that spores in the biofilm display a phenotypic heterogeneity. These observations might be of particular significance for the food industry, since the biofilm part sticking to container walls - the ring - is likely to contain spores and will therefore resist both to washing and to cleaning procedures, and will be able to restart a new biofilm when food production has resumed.

In a recent report by the ministry of environment and the UNDP, increased temperature and humidity index, and a decrease in water quality and availability are anticipated with global warming in Lebanon. Since Awassi sheep are adapted to transhumance, exposing them to many hours of direct sun radiation, the amount of adaptation of these sheep with anticipated changes require further research. To analyze the adaptation of our local ewes under summer hottest temperature, 30 animals were tested in LARI-Terbol experimental farm during summer 2016 from July to August divided into 2 weeks of adaptation to the experimental plot, one month of experimentation and then 2 weeks of recovery. Animals were divided into 6 groups of 5 ewes each in a 2x3 factorial treatment of salt and sun exposure respectively. All groups consumed equal feed ration, with half presented normal water (No-Salt) while the other half were supplemented MgSO4 in water and CaCO3 in feed (Salt). As for sun exposure, 1/3 of the animals were kept in shaded pens (Shade), 1/3 in half shaded/half sun pens (Control) and 1/3 kept in open pens exposed to sun (Sun). Stress of the ewes (heart & respiration rates, panting score, body temperature) feed and water intake (using the rejection method on 2 consecutive days), BCS and body weight (BW) were measured. Body temperature (BT) and panting score (PS - scale of 0 to 5) were taken at different periods of the day (AM and PM), while BCS, BW, heart (HR)and respiration(RR) rates were taken twice a week. The analysis showed no significant difference (P<0.05) between groups for BCS and BW; full consumption of feed even the salty ones; decrease in the salty water intake respectively to sun radiation and time of measurement (noon vs all day); no difference (P>0.1) between shade and control ewes for HR, RR and panting score, but a high significance (P<0.05) increase in ewes exposed to sun, however the maximum panting score observed was 2.5 during the one month experiment, indicating a high adaptability of the Awassi ewe.

Background: Although red meat is a highly nutritious food, the global increase in meat consumption has become a concern. Meat production has increased to support this rise in meat consumption leading to higher antibiotic use for growth promotion and controlling diseases in livestock. The misuse and abuse of antimicrobial agents in animal production could result in accumulation in edible tissues and animal products. Consumption of food containing antibiotic residues can lead to many health effects such as: allergic reactions, disturbance of natural intestinal micro-flora and development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In Lebanon, resistance to antibiotic has become a big concern especially with the uncontrolled antibiotic drug prescription and intake.

Objective: The aim of our research is to assess the exposure of Lebanese consumer to antibiotic residues from the consumption of red meat and red meat products. The estimated intake of those residues will be calculated based on socio-demographic such as education level, age, sex, income, social status. The risk associated with the prevalence of antibiotic residues intake from animal product consumption of the Lebanese population, will be also evaluated.

Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out. Participants were recruited among consumers visiting 11 supermarkets distributed in Mount Lebanon, during December 2016. An interviewer-based questionnaire was developed and divided into 4 parts assessing a) the socio-demographic characteristics, b) antibiotic knowledge c) trends in antibiotic consumption and d) food frequency questionnaire. On the other hand, a total of 88 samples of meats including muscles, kidney, liver and fat were collected from supermarkets and small butchers located in Mount Lebanon, between January and March 2017. Samples will be analyzed for penicillin content using competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The dietary exposure assessment will be calculated following the method detailed by the Joint Expert (FAO and WHO) Committee of Food Additive (JECFA). The dietary exposure will be assessed on the overall population as well as on subgroups and compared to the ADI of penicillin residues. The contributions of each meat group to the average dietary exposure to antibiotic will be also calculated*. Analyses were performed using SPSS, version 20. Comparisons of continuous and categorical variables will be performed using independent samples T Test (or ANOVA) and the chi square test, respectively. Logistic regressions will be performed when using dichotomous outcome variables as dependent variables. Adjustment will be made over potential confounding variables such as socio-economic characteristics and body mass index. A p-value < 0.05 will be considered statistically significant.

Preliminary Results: Out of 500 participants recruited from Mount Lebanon, 58.8% were females, the median age was 40 years old, 37.8% being overweight and 8.6% obese. Among those participants 24.4% would never buy meat from local butcher while 37% never buy it from the supermarket. As reported by the participants, 1.2% have allergies upon red meat consumption and 7.8% have allergies on antibiotic consumption. The trends of antibiotic consumption showed that 44% of the participants had infections requiring antibiotic treatment over the past year 2016, 66.4% used antibiotic drugs more than one time, 16.8% changed antibiotic during treatment, and 20.8% had side effect from antibiotic use. The mean daily meat consumption from beef, lamb and goat was 235.5+/-174.5 g/day ranging from 6.67 to 1334 g/day. The total daily lamb meat consumption was highest among the population with a mean of 241.8 g/day, as compared to the beef consumption (206.6 g/day) and goat consumption (46.1 g/day). Consumers were more likely to consume minced and muscle meat from beef with 120.5 and 52.7 g/day, respectively, while raw, organ, and sausages were from lamb with consumptions of 66.1, 43.2, and 29.3 g/day, respectively. Males were more likely to consume meat than females (266.5 and 164.3 g/day, respectively). Participants who buy their meat from local butcher are more likely to consume minced, organ, raw and sausages than those who buy their meat from supermarket (p < 0.01).

new miniaturized Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC) is proposed for Dual Wide Band operation for Long Term Evolution (LTE) in Europe bands. Inserting four slots in the patch design results in a reduced unit cell size that has zero reflection phase and high surface impedance reaching 3600 Ω and 5400 Ω at the dual resonant frequencies. This design is proposed to replace the conventional metallic reflector which allows the miniaturization of LTE antennas. Results are simulated by ANSYS HFSS (High Frequency Structure Simulator).

Lithium-air batteries attract outstanding interest among energy storage devices due to their potentially significantly higher energy storage than current batteries. However many challenges remain to make it practical reality.1 The main reaction during discharge is the reduction of oxygen. In fact, oxygen is first reduced to superoxide that reacts with lithium ions from the electrolyte to form lithium peroxide (Li2O2). This is similar to the formation of hydrogen peroxide in aqueous media but in this case, Li2O2 is a solid that is deposited on the electrode surface. Many challenges remain to understand its formation and reactivity which depend greatly on the chemical environment;2 particularly (i) the solvent, (ii) the electrode porosity, (iii) the chemical nature of the electrode material, both in the bulk and on the surface. Oxygen as inner sphere reactant has been widely studied in aqueous media on flat glassy carbon, gold or platinum. In this work O2 reduction on new modified surfaces will be presented and discussed based on surface modification using imidazolium (see scheme). The grafting was obtained by two different strategies: (i) Grafting by click chemistry after a diazonium grafting or (ii) Diels-Alder addition directly on the surface of carbon. And using electrochemical data we can determine the coverage rate of the grafted surface and how this cationic layer impacts the electrochemical reactivity of oxygen. 1. Y. Chen, S. A. Freunberger, Z. Peng, O. Fontaine and P. G. Bruce, Nat Chem, 2013, 5, 489-494. 2. C. Li, O. Fontaine, S. A. Freunberger, L. Johnson, S. Grugeon, S. p. Laruelle, P. G. Bruce and M. Armand, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2014, 118, 3393-3401.

As concluded from the recent scenarios developed by the International Energy Agency and British Petroleum, BP, fossil fuel demands will continue to grow in the near future. This is further driven by the discovery of new and emerging unconventional sources such as tight oil and shale gas, which are becoming more technically accessible. Meanwhile continued carbon dioxide emissions have been associated with rising sea levels, ocean acidification, increased droughts, reductions in crop productivity and deaths due to infectious diseases. Still, it is predicted, in addressing the problem of global climate change, that a cigarette-like addiction for fossil fuel usage may generate a long period of time in which people express sincere desire to convert to clean energy resources but accomplish little to achieve it. Until a zero carbon footprint could be reached, it is of urgent priority now to bring foreword new materials that would serve under the technical processes developed for CO2 capture. Nitrogen-rich solid absorbents which have been immensely tested for such capture seem until this date without decisive molecular design or engineering rules. We report here a family of cyanovinylene-based microporous polymers synthesized under metal-catalyzed conditions as promising candidates for advanced carbon capture materials. These networks revealed that isosteric heats of CO2 adsorption were directly proportional to the amount of incorporated functional group. Motivated by this finding, polymers produced under base-catalyzed conditions with tailored quantities of cyanovinyl content, confirmed the systematical tuning of their sorption enthalpies to reach 40 kJ mol-1. This value is among highest reported to date in carbonaceous networks undergoing physisorption. A six-point-plot reveals that this structure - thermodynamic-property relationship is linearly proportional, and could thus be perfectly fitted to tailor-made values prior to experimental measurements. Dynamic simulations show a bowl shaped region within which CO2 is able to sit and interact with its conjugated surrounding, while theoretical calculations confirmed the increase of binding sites with the increase of Ph-C=C(CN)-Ph functionality in a network. We think our concept presents a distinct method for the future design of advanced carbon capture materials.

*A. Yassin, M. Trunk, F. Czerny, P. Fayon, A. Trewin, J. Schmidt, A. Thomas, Advanced Funct. Mater., Just accepted, DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201700233 (VIP paper).

Hikaru Wakaura, Hiroyaso Koizumi, Michel Abou Ghantous Koizumi.hiroyaso.fn@u.tsukuba.ac.jp michel.aboughantous@aut.edu it is now widely recognized that gauge fields other than electromagnetism arise in solids; they are considered to be essential for the understanding of electronic properties, such as ferroelectricity, magnetism, and electric conductivity. It has been argued that the elucidation of the mechanism of superconductivity in high Tc cuprates needs to include such a gauge field; i.e., it has been theoretically predicted that 3D nano loop currents (NLC) are created by a disordered distribution of spin-vortices in the cuprates, and they are the current element of their superconductivity. When spin-vortices are created by itinerant electrons, singularities of the wave function arise at the centers of the spin-vortices. Such singularities were not handled properly for a long time, but a method to deal with them have been developed [1]. SVILCs appear when these singularities arise. In this situation, the simple energy minimization yields wave functions (they correspond to +0 in Ψ(r^((1) ),… ,r^((N) ) )= Ψ0 (r^((1) ),… ,r^((N) ) )× phase factor) that are multi-valued around the singularities. In other words, +0 becomes multi-valued due to the spin-twisting itinerant motion. In this situation, the single-valued requirement must be imposed in addition to the energy minimization. In our method, this requirement is achieved by introducing the phase factor e^(-i/2 ∑(α=1)^Nχ^(r(α)) ). A theoretical calculation for the superconducting transition temperature of the hole doped cuprate is performed based on supercurrent generation by the spin-twisting itinerant motion of electrons. The superconducting transition temperature, Tc, is determined by a numerical simulation as the stabilization temperature of the coherence-length-sized loop currents, spin-vortex-induced loop currents (SVILCs)", generated by the spin-twisting itinerant motion of electrons.[2] In the new mechanism, there are three requirements for the appearance of superconducting state; 1. Generation of spin-vortices with doped holes as their cores (spin-vortex formation problem). 2. Creation of a network of spin-vortices (percolation problem) at low concentration of dopant holes. 3. Stabilization of the loop currents created around spin vortices (loop-current stabilization problem) We used Monte-Carlo method to generate the quartet (SVQ) as shown in figure 1, and to see their development during the stabilization of the loops currents. (Figure) Fig. 1: The SVQ. M and A denote the centers of the spin vortex with the winding number +1 and -1 respectively. Then they becomes tiled in crossed stripes forms due to their stabilization process. We propose new qubits for quantum computers. They are nano-sized persistent loop currents called, the spin-vortex-induced loop currents (SVILCs) [3]. They are predicted to exist in one of the theories for hole doped cuprate superconductors. The predicted SVILC has a number of properties that are suitable for qubits: each SVILC is characterized by topological winding number, thus, expected to be robust against environmental perturbations; because of the smallness of their size, they can be assembled into a large qubit-number system in a small space. We have calculated the transition dipole moments between different SVILC qubit states that are split by an applying external magnetic field. Some of the calculated values are relatively large, around 10−30 C m, thus, the Rabi oscillation in the order of nanosecond time scale is easily achieved. The final SVILC state may be readout by measuring local magnetic field (about 0.01 T) or measuring response currencies upon the application of external current feeding. The coupling of qubits may be achieved by using external current feeding [3]. We expect that SVILC qubits satisfy DiVincenzo's criteria for qubits, namely, 1. Initialization capability, 2. Readout capability, 3. Gate-operation capability, 4. Reasonably long decoherence time, and 5. Integration capability to a large qubit-number system. (figure) FIG. 2 proposed qubit coupler for the SVILC quantum computer. Each qubit is composed of four spin-vortex-induced loop currents (SVILCs), and indicated as red arrows showing the current flowing direction. The center of each loop current is denoted as 'R' or 'L' , depending on the winding number of the current ('R' for a winding number +1 current, and 'L' for a winding number -1 current). Upper: two qubits are independent without overlap between two current flowing regions. Lower: two qubits are connected by applying external feeding currents (blue arrows) with overlap between two current flowing regions.

[1] Akira Okazaki, H.. Wakaura, H. Koizumi, M. Abou Ghantous, M. Tachiki. J. Supercond. Nov. Magn. 28 (2015):3221-3233. [2] H. Koizumi, O. Okazaki, M. Abou Ghantous, M. Tachiki. J. Supercond. Nov. Magn. 27, (2014b) 2435-2446 [3] Hikaru Wakaura, Hiroyasu Koizumi. Physics C: Superconductivity and its applications, Volumes 521-522, 15 February (2016), 55-66

La pollution des eaux par des substances dangereuses qui sont les métaux lourds, constitue un des problèmes environnementaux les plus importants dans le monde entier. Ces polluants interviennent dans la plupart des secteurs d'activités telles que le traitement de surfaces, la galvanisation, la peinture, la fabrication de circuits électroniques, … Le cuivre est un des métaux lourds les plus utilisé dans l'industrie. A forte concentration, il devient extrêmement toxique pour les organismes vivants. L'intoxication par les ions cuivre (II) provoque des dépôts d'ions dans le cerveau, la peau, le pancréas, le foie, et le myocarde. Le traitement donc des milieux pollués constituent une étape indispensable pour la protection des écosystèmes aquatiques. Parmi les techniques de traitement développées, la biosorption semble être parmi la plus efficace. Dans cette étude, nous utilisons les propriétés de biosorption des alginates. Pour cela, des billes d'alginates sont formées par extrusion à partir d'une solution d'alginate de sodium dans une solution de calcium. Cependant la récupération de ces billes du milieu est difficile. Des nanoparticules magnétiques de magnétite sont insérées dans les billes. Il sera a possible de récupérer les billes et de les régénérer pour les utiliser dans des cycles supplémentaires. La présence des nanoparticules de magnétite a été démontrée par des mesures de diffraction de rayons X. Les analyses de SQUID montrent un comportement magnétique des billes d'alginates contenant les nanoparticules. L'influence de la magnétite sur la morphologie des billes a été exploitée par microscopie électronique à balayage. Des billes d'alginate magnétiques ont été plongées dans une solution contenant des ions Cu2+ pour une longue durée de temps. Des études de cinétique et d'isotherme d'adsorption sont menées. Le maximum d'efficacité a été mesuré à 116 mg/g pour de faibles quantités d'alginate. La cinétique d'adsorption vérifie le modèle du pseudo second ordre, et les données expérimentales sont bien décrites par les isothermes de Langmuir et de Freundlich. La présence de cuivre dans les billes a été confirmée par des mesures par EDX (Energy Dispersive X-ray). De plus, la spectroscopie XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy) a montré que l'adsorption des ions cuivre s'effectue principalement par échange ionique avec des ions calcium. En outre, la désorption des billes a été possible après traitement par une solution de HCl.

The need for communication and the evolution of software architecture - due to the growing of the system size - necessitate the implementation and use a self-adaptable and configurable system. SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is one of the preferred technologies characterized in this property [1]. Attaining a system that applies the SOA standards, is considered among the costly and time consuming processes, even if it involves changing, reconfiguring, upgrading or even rewriting a legacy system, which was built using some outdated technology while it is still bringing value to the organization, or designed in unstructured architecture, like modular programming, or written using OOP technique, or even software designed with component-based architecture. Using SOA technology offers many advantages for implementing a distributed system that provides interoperability between different software components. Third party services can be deployed in parallel with legacy system to achieve interworking with another system or components. Interoperability is the ability of one or more systems to connect, understand and exchange data with one another for a given purpose. Several solutions exist to achieve interoperability between systems using different languages, platforms, operating systems and services. One of main drawback of these solutions is the difficulties of using and implementing it. The most challenging problems to interoperability are heterogeneities and complexity of data specifications. To achieve interoperability, special care is needed at four important levels like data structure, application, middleware protocols and the non-functional properties such as security and latency of transmitted message. Different systems may represent data in different ways, and such data heterogeneity exists at two levels: syntactic and semantic. The semantic interoperability problem is to guarantee that all components of the system share the same understanding of the data transmitted, where the same understanding means that they have consistent semantic representations of the data. Multi-level modelling incorporates an arbitrary number of abstraction levels that can be used to simplify the representation of specifications and data mappings [7]. Also, wrappers containing the self-description of the data source, are used to transform the data of a data source into a data source specific ontology [6]. A simple solution is to use a shared dictionary. Heterogeneous discovery protocols are used in order find the proper service, and heterogeneous interaction protocols which achieve the communication between the applications necessitate the use of a middleware solution like CORBA, DCOM, SOAP messaging, etc. Software bridges enable communication between different environments. They act as a one-to-one mapping between domains; it formats the transmitted message to be understandable to the receiver. Software bridges may be used to simplify applications' heterogeneity. An example is SOAP2CORBA2 which is an open source implementation of a fully functional bi-directional SOAP to CORBA Bridge. IDLs are commonly used in remote procedure call software to offer a bridge between two different systems and would be another solution. The main challenge addressed in this paper is the lack of integration between the work on middleware and semantic interoperability, which is clearly an impediment of any progress in this area. The challenges of interoperability including the need for integration across these two communities, resulting in middleware solutions that are intrinsically based on semantic meaning [4]. The proposed solution must satisfy the desired properties of performance, security, diversity, availability, complexity, scalability, manageability, findability, portability, functionality, reusability, etc. These characteristics will differ and vary according to business needs and required services. To choose the best solution, we must measure the quality of attributes of the solution by a number of well-known quality models [8], the effective result will come after measure the Software metrics using ISO 16300-3 standard which is in the voting phase until May 2017

In order to satisfy regularly the new requirements of a software system, changes are continuously performed on the system implementation. Accordingly, most of the software systems erode of their original documentations. To control this erosion, the extraction of the system's architecture has been widely proposed. The extraction of a software architecture from existing systems is the science of analyzing and converting the source code to a software architecture. This latter describes the system elements and their interactions. While several automatic extraction processes proved to be very efficient, there is no tool allowing an architect to integrate his knowledge and interact with the process. In fact, an efficient extraction process should takes into consideration the architect knowledge and allows him to interact with the generated outputs during the process. Thus, our main contribution in this field is providing a manner to the architect to integrate his knowledge and interact with the extraction process. More specifically, we propose in this paper a new approach of extraction that allows the architect interaction. The proposed approach is based on KDD (Knowledge Discovery in Databases) and is applied using KNIME, a KDD tool.

Technology is intended to serve in many aspects, especially in healthcare. In this work we investigated how providing detailed contextual information records of users testing for heart rate using their smartphones, might enhance diagnostics of heart rate results. We used the HRM sensor in a smartphone device to perform personal heart rate tests and build test reports combined with specific determinants that affect heart rate, using the smartphone embedded sensors, we customized algorithms for user activity recognition to auto detect user activities and to gather environmental factors that affect heart rate performance.

Multiple closed-set patterns were recognized using a proposed classification and clustering methods [1]. The purpose of the clustering technique was to re-group the classes having similar characteristics into independent clusters. In the testing phase of the algorithm, an image containing a license plate character has to be categorized to one of the clusters before performing the set of classification rules and additional post-processing methods. The main problem is in the delay time of the program for extracting the features in order to categorize a character image to a certain cluster. Hence, our aim is to speedup the execution using parallel processing techniques in general-purpose CPUs. We used a multi-core processor to expose the parallelism in our previous work [1]. The main idea of parallel computing is to divide the problem under investigation into tasks and subtasks among several workers (threads) and then execute them concurrently on the available cores of the CPU. To do so, we used the parallel computing toolbox available in MATLAB. There are several constructs for converting a sequential program into a parallel one. We used the parallel constructs: parfor, SPMD, and createJob/createTask. Upon using the parfor construct for running our parallel program, 3 different scenarios were applied. In the first scenario, the images are categorized and classified concurrently. That is, each image is processed by a separate computing thread. In the second scenario, the nested parfor construct is activated to extract all the horizontal and vertical features for each image. Finally, in the third scenario, the images are categorized and classified sequentially but the features are extracted in parallel. Table 1 recorded the time achieved (in seconds) for completing the program run in three different scenarios with respect to 2, 3, or 4 workers. Table 2 shows the relative speedups of the three scenarios compared with the sequential program. The experimental results showed a maximum speedup of 2.94 in case of using four workers, while a 2.6 for the second scenario. The third scenario did not gain any speedup due to the race condition problem. The sequential and parallel programs are executed using the same test environment: Intel Core i7-6700 CPU @3.40GHz supporting 4 cores and 8 threads. The experimental result for a sequential run estimates 8.15 seconds for recognizing 845 images with a recognition accuracy above 98%. Table 1: The execution times (seconds) for each parallel implementation scenario with respect to the number of workers (threads) Number of Workers Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3 2 4.46 5.01 62.9 3 3.35 3.77 66.51 4 2.77 3.13 71.53

Table 2: The relative speedup for each parallel implementation scenario with respect to the number of workers (threads) Number of Workers Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3 2 1.83 1.63 No Speedup 3 2.43 2.16 No Speedup 4 2.94 2.60 No Speedup

Reference [1] S. Al-Shami, A. El-Zaart,A. Zekri, K. Almustafa and R. Zantout. "Number Recognition in the Saudi License Plates using Classification and Clustering Methods". Applied Mathematics and Information Sciences (AMIS). 11, No. 1, 123-135 (2017)

Throughout the different online attacks obstructing the security of the IT, Denial of Service or what is known as DoS has the greatest destructive effects [1]. The increasing number of attacks and the effects of these happenings show the importance of researching such types of attacks. These attacks have led businesses down, destroyed the economy of a nation and even led to governments being changed. DoS attacks are usually classified into several categories and this depends on the style with which they were implemented: 1) Distributed Denial of Service; 2) Low rate TCP targeted Denial of Service; 3) Reflective Denial of service. These categories encompass DoS attacks like: Smurf, Ping Flood and Ping of Death, TCP SYN Flood, and UDP Flood. Several defense mechanisms were used to mitigate Dos attacks, for instance, the Use of Access Control Lists, the Use of Rate Limiting, Destination Based Black Hole Filtering, Source Based Black Hole Filtering, and Attack Isolation. We notice that there exists no perfect mitigation for this problem [2], [3], [4]. The aim of this paper is to use the heuristic approach to produce a solution in a reasonable time frame that is good enough for solving the above problem. Our solution consists of keeping track of our visitor's identification (such as IP), and separate our regular visitors from new ones. This could be achieved by adding a smart router / load balancer that distribute data depending on the visitor's reputation as illustrated in figure 1 and figure 2 respectively. Traffic is received by the Main Load Balancer which, based on reputation and heuristics, send the user via the new visitor route or the trusted visitor route. In case of a DOS attack, the Main Load Balancer will be flooded / gone offline. Hence the Backup Load Balancer will fill the void. The Backup Load Balancer does not have a route for new users and thus blocks all new requests (hence blocks the attack) and safely allow trusted users to enter the network. This solution saves services from going offline, and increase clients trust by staying available regarding the attack [5]. However the downside is that during the attack phase, some legitimate new visitors will be left out as well since they are not in the trust zone yet.

Figure 1 - Proposed Solution Infrastructure. Figure 2 - Proposed Solution DOS attack.

Our solution consists of two main parts: the physical infrastructure of the network, and the algorithm identifying legitimate trusted traffic from the poisoned / infected traffic. For the infrastructure, we use two Ubuntu servers. Each of them is running HAPROXY to serve as a load balancer. Having two (or more) load balancers is a critical step within this solution, as they are configured in a failover manner (load balancer peering), where the main load balancer is always functioning until an attack occur. Once an attack occurs, naturally, the first load balancer will be flooded with requests and hence the backup load balancer will take place. The trick is, the second load balancer only redirect traffic to servers that process only trusted requests and ignore all the others [6], hence it will hardly be processing any dummy requests and thus remain functioning normally. The second part of the solution is our algorithm to classify traffic as trusted or untrusted. For that, we test the request by having it pass through a set of rules, where each rule has its own weight. For each rule the request is successfully tested, the request gain the weight of this rule in an incremental manner. Once it is done, if the request has a specific total number of points, the request is then trusted. For instance, we define a set of rules as shown in the table below: RULE The visitor's IP The visitor's User Agent The visitor's Geolocation The visitor's browser's Fingerprint The visitor's browser's Fingerprint The visitor's credentials (If logged in) X WEIGHT W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 WT

Where the weight W(n) is a defined integer. (Weights are chosen based on human supervised training, trials and errors). Scenario Simulation: 1- The request is sent from an IP that access our services daily. The request gains W1 point. 2- The request's User Agent has previously accessed our services. The request gains W2 point (total is now W1 + W2). 3- The visitor identified is in the same country our services is, and the same location his IP usually requests from, the request gains W3 (total is now W1 + W2 + W3) 4- The visitor's browser finger print is not identified. The number of points remains W1 + W2 + W3. 5- The visitor is not logged in. The number of points remains W1 + W2 + W3. As a result, if W1 + W2 + W3 > X, the request is marked as trusted and thus allowed to pass. Else, the request is dropped, and further requests from the same source are no longer needed to be tested, they are dropped automatically. Note: the rules and weight are to be customized per service, as each service can provide more evidence and different ways of identifications of legitimate requests. Sample output result: HAPROXY is used as two balancers that can handle requests. Main HAPROXY server configuration: is to handle all new and trusted requests Back up load balancer configuration: once the domain security.proof is called, the client will be redirected to the webserver hosted on 192.168.43.50 and the load balancer is configured to failover another load balancer called lbb hosted on 192.168.43.40. Where the only allowed sources are 192.168.43.200 and 192.168.43.99 considering them trusted visitors. All other requests will be denied.

REFERENCES

[1]. Distributed Denial of Service Attacks and the Zombie ant Effect, J. Elliot, IT Professional, pages: 55 - 57, 2000. [2]. Surviving Distributed Denial of Service Attacks, Liu, S, IEEE Computer, vol. 11, no. 5, pages: 51-53, 2009. [3]. Defeating Distributed Denial of Service Attacks, Geng and Whinston, IT Professional, vol. 2, no 4, pages: 36 - 42, 2006. [4]. Defending Against Flooding Based Distributed Denial of Service Attacks: A Tutorial, Communications Magazine, IEEE, vol. 40, no. 10, pages 42-51, 2002. [5]. Sustaining availability of Web Services under Distributed Denial of Service Attacks, Wooyong Lee, Jun Xu, Computers IEEE Transactions on, vol. 52, no. 2, pages: 195-208, 2003. [6]. Access Control Lists to Protect a Network from DoS Attacks, Dennis Eck, 2003.

This paper proposes a new approach towards better understanding medical documents by readers who are not experts in the Medical field. The main idea is to allow the readers to read and understand medical documents by detecting and demystifying medical terms and supporting each with more information, images and videos. To achieve this goal, we applied Natural Language Processing techniques as well as a Heuristic approach to tackle the problem of detecting technical words. We then used the National Library of Medicine to simplify the detected words. Finally, we used the Microsoft Cognitive Services to fetch more information, images and videos related to the medical terms that were detected.

Introduction

Competitiveness and strength found in sports are attributes that are generally associated with masculine traits. Thus, sports in general have been traditionally thought of as more appropriate for men and not compatible with a conservative feminine role (Koivula, 1999). Gender based types have been shown to affect attitudes and behaviors, therefore, gender roles might differentially influence men and women to participate in sports (Bowker et al, 2003). The aim of this study is to investigate how gender roles affect participation and adherence to sports in men and women in the Lebanese population where gender roles are torn between patriarchal and egalitarian (Moghadam, 2003). It is hypothesized that more traditional gender roles should predict a more frequent participation of sports in men and a less frequent participation in women. It is also predicted that men with masculine gender roles would be more involved in competitive sports and women with feminine gender roles would be involved in less competitive physical activities.

Method

One thousand four hundred participants from the Lebanese population were invited to fill in the survey booklet presented either in French or English. The questionnaires included seven scales of which four where used for this study. The questionnaires included the short form of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (1981), the Gender Attitudes Inventory (Ashmore, 1995) and a sociodemographic questionnaire presenting items measuring the frequency and participation in physical activity and sports as well as the type of activity, its nature (recreational or competitive) and the reasons to participate in the specific activities.

Results

Results were analyzed using univariate regressions and ANOVAs with gender roles as the independent variable and sports participation as the dependent variables. Endorsement of chivalry and traditional women's role were entered in the model as either moderators or mediators of the previous relationship. Results show that more traditional gender roles in men is related to a participation of competitive sports while traditional gender roles in women is related to a lower frequency of sports practice.

Discussion

Results are discussed in the light of the gender role theory arguing that the polarized attitude toward sports maintains a skewed balance in exercising and participation in sports and that specifically for competitive sports (Koivula, 1999). Exercising and sports being an essential factor in physical health, in particular in women, the importance of promoting gender neutral attitudes toward sports is discussed in Lebanon and the Middle East.

Notre communication traite la question de la 'communication interculturelle dans l'enseignement des arts au Liban'. Nous allons présenter le cadre théorique général des sciences de l'information et de la communication, définir le concept de culture, évoquer comment la culture peut être assimiler à la communication, montrer la différence entre la communication interculturelle et la communication multiculturelle, présenter les théories de la communication interculturelle, faire un tour du coté de l'enseignement interculturelle à travers les arts puis enfin exposer la succession d'opérations et de manipulations intellectuelles et techniques de la partie méthodologique du projet de thèse.

The recent election of General Michel Aoun as Head of State of the Republic of Lebanon has given rise to certain hopes in the Lebanese socio-political reality. Despite this halo of optimism endorsed by the end of the power vacuum since the end of May 2014, it does not appear that the structural problems affecting Lebanon, and especially its inoperative foreign policy, will be solved. As a matter of fact, the regional geopolitical dynamics are still affecting any kind of decision in its foreign affairs.

In order to understand the turmoil in the Lebanese foreign policy, which partly determines its lack of independence, the following issues must be considered in order to understand the herculean task represented by the challenge of getting an independent foreign policy: In what way the new President of the Republic will ensure the balance between the interests of his main ally Hezbollah and the claims of the Sunni community? In what way will the paradigm of neutrality be guaranteed when its main ally is immersed in the Syrian war? How does the Lebanese foreign policy respond more to the fragmentation of alliances existing between the different confessional communities and the regional powers than to the national interest itself? In what way does confessionalism force the Lebanese state to make use of paradiplomacy?.

This article aims to show some of the internal and external factors that hinder the formation of a genuine independent foreign policy. In order to understand the impact of these factors, the article will show, on the one hand, some general considerations about the Lebanese foreign policy, and on the other, it will present its main operational paradigms (balance of power, security dilemma, neutrality, etc...).

The article will conclude by showing some of the geopolitical challenges that are hindering the formation and implementation of an independent foreign policy.

Social media has gained importance in business and there are several companies that are using social media to enhance their competitive advantage. The luxury brands are no exception to this. Irrespective of how they are placed in the market and their market share, businesses use social media for various purposes. One of the main purposes is to enhance marketing strategies. Through the use of social media, businesses are able to get in direct contact with their customers. There are two major luxury brands agents in Lebanon - Aïshti and Chalhoub. Aïshti is using social media whereas Chalhoub is not. The research aims to identify how social media changes luxury brands marketing in comparison to traditional marketing, which is what Chalhoub practice. To understand this, the research collects empirical data from the marketing managers of both the dealers through qualitative interviews. Interviews with the luxury brand agents were administered. In addition to this, a survey was carried out with Lebanese luxury brand consumers. The findings showed that although Chalhoub is not using social media, they believe in its benefits. The brands that they represent use social media to get in touch with the customers and to understand their needs. Both Aïshti and Chalhoub are aware that social media complements and enhances traditional marketing and it is a tactic that businesses need to adopt and practice. Further, Lebanese luxury brands consumers use social media to make their purchase decisions and also to gather information about the latest developments in the luxury brands and their products.

In clinical therapy, the doctor's empathy towards his patient is an indispensable part of the diagnosis; it is part of an effective communication that creates a safe environment for the doctor and the patient and at the same time leads to better health outcomes. As researchers in this field state, it results in a more accurate diagnosis, a stronger therapeutic commitment, and a greater patient-therapist satisfaction (Coulehan et al., 2001; Dubey & Gupta, 2013). However, practicing empathy is not a common phenomenon among doctors nowadays (Coulehan, 2001;Wood, Sutton, Clark, McKeon, & Bain, 2006). Today, patients frequently complain about their doctors not listening to them attentively. Among the patients are refugees who are suffering from the therapists' lack of empathy when seeking a medical care (Burgees,2004). According to a report done by IRSA (2004), there are health challenges faced by refugees in the United States. The miscommunication between them and the doctors has serious consequences since the patients leave the clinic confused about the medical instructions and with little confidence in the diagnosis done (Burgess, 2004; Wood et al., 2006). Similarly, the Syrian-refugee patients in Lebanon are facing dire situations when it comes to their health issues (El-Jardali, Hammoud, Fouad, & Bou Karoum, 2014). Hence, therapeutic empathy, adopted in patient-centered communication, mainly depends on the doctor's cognitive process or his perspective-taking skill practiced with the patient (Dubey & Gupta, 2013). However, such conceptualization, in most cases, contradicts with the health challenges that Syrian refugees experience in Lebanon-nowadays- and consequently many of them suffer from doctors' lack of empathy and end up confused about the medical instructions given to them and unconfident about the diagnosis done. The purpose of the paper is to explore how emphatic Lebanese doctors are with the Syrian refugees. The data collected comprises five recorded clinic dialogues between doctors and Syrian refugee patients in different dispensaries across Lebanon. The dialogues were collected from five different Lebanese regions and for ethical purposes neither the dispensaries nor the patients' or doctors' names would be mentioned. Contextual analysis is applied to explore how the word choice and expressions of the doctors reflected their therapeutic empathy with the patients. The qualitative analysis was based on therapeutic empathy techniques (show respect, share humor, use silence, share empathy, etc..) adopted from different theories such as Arnold & Bogg's (2003) and Napp & Hall's (2002). The doctors' responses were compared to the four forms of emphatic therapist responses categorized by Eliott, Bohart, Watson, and Greenberg (2011): 1) emphatic understanding response, 2) emphatic affirmations, 3) emphatic evocations, and 4) emphatic conjectures. Moreover, the level of empathy in the doctors' responses is identified according to the five scales of emphatic communication created by Hepworth, Rooney, Rooney, and Strom-Gottfried, 2013. Both Eloitt et al.(2011) and Hepworth et al.'s (2013) categorizations are based on 1) doctor's depth of understanding the patient's feelings and 2) his ability to communicate back his awareness of the patient's experience. The extracts in the above table show that the dialogue between the doctor and the patient lacked empathy in all its four forms. When the mother's patient told the doctor about her baby's constipation experience, the doctor directly recommended the use of a suppository for a couple of days. He did not show any: understanding of the mother's feelings (emphatic understanding response), affirmation to her perspective of her baby's situation (emphatic affirmation), concrete description of the baby's experience and feelings (emphatic evocations), or interpretation of what the mother could not describe (emphatic conjectures). Hence, the doctor showed the lowest level of Hepworth et al.'s scale of emphatic communication. In all five case studies, the doctors showed several therapeutic communication techniques. They were respectful and friendly with their patients, asked them relevant questions, and provided them with the needed information. However, on the psychological and emphatic level, none of the doctors encouraged the refugee patients to outlet the burden of his/her experience with the disease. The doctors' responses did not show an understanding and interpretation of what the patients were implicitly living or feeling. Based on the findings, further research is recommended to explore the effects of the doctor's lack of empathy on the Syrian refugee's health outcomes.

Parler de l'information - communication dans le monde arabe, et plus spécifiquement, de la formation académique des chercheurs dans domaine ne peut pas avoir, selon nous, une valeur référentielle ni une crédibilité scientifique sans que cette étude ne soit basée sur une connaissance recherchée et un travail vérifié qui dessine l'espace académique et scientifique de la formation dans les pays arabes avec ses trois aspects essentiels: les établissements, les périodiques et les rencontres scientifiques. Nous avons réalisé des longues recherches bibliographiques pour trouver une étude exhaustive des Facultés et instituts qui enseignent l'information - communication dans ces pays sans résultats ; nous n'avons même pas pu repérer un répertoire pour les Universités arabes. Pour cela, nous nous sommes trouvés obligés d'effectuer un répertoire de toutes les Universités et les Facultés enseignant l'information - communication qui existent dans les pays arabes, et sur lequel nous nous basons pour connaître l'espace académique arabe dans le domaine de l'information - communication.

The design discipline is characterized by a steady increase in complexity. The main focus of this research is a structural approach on complexity management that would better inform the role of the designer in the process of product design, particularly in biomimetics and synthetic biology. This entails a consideration of system structures in order to address the challenge of complexity in product design, particularly in biomimetics and synthetic biology. Structures arise from complex dependencies of natural system elements in environments and cell evolution. Thus the identification of system structures provides access to the understanding of system behavior in practical applications. Biomimetics is the application and emulation of mechanisms, functions, and principles found in nature to the concepts of design, engineering, chemistry, electronics, and other areas. Nature has frequently provided inspiration for the creation of man-made technological inventions and many systems have been extensively studied to help solve problems in medicine, engineering, material science, and mathematics. Synthetic biology is the design of engineered, living systems with the purpose of unlocking new potential uses of biology. The products of synthetic biology can and have been used to process information, fabricate living materials and structures, provide food and energy, and manipulate chemicals. For example, researches have proposed the idea of a microbial home, a "domestic ecosystem" that can be used to replace traditional housing. The microbial home explores solutions from biological processes that are most likely less polluting and less energy consuming by using biological processes to accomplish domestic activities such as human waste management, food preparation and storage, and cooking. In addition, it utilizes biological systems to provide lighting. The concept of a home as a biological machine is an innovation of synthetic biology. In design, the possible technological futures are tackled by critical design where speculative objects are created to provoke debate by making abstract ideas tangible and open to discussion. In developing imagining products to stimulate debate among and communicate to the users, the designer is assuming an ethical role in awareness, hence a shifting role from problem-solver in biomimetics to philosophical sense-maker in synthetic biology. Both biomimetics and synthetic biology find common ground in design and biology, hence multidisciplinarity. The more complex the system is, the more difficult it is to design and control. Although there are several different methods for coping with complexity, there is no generalized way to approach the construction of complex systems. A team of researchers led by Carlos Gerhenson (2007) has proposed a methodology for dealing with complexity that is based on self-organizing systems. This methodology includes a series of steps that can be followed in order to determine pathways within the system that will find a solution to the engineering problem, the premise being that a solution can be found through the interaction of elements among themselves. With this conceptual framework, a complex product in biomimetics or synthetic biology may be thought of as being similar to a living ecosystem. This methodology is to solve problems of complexity dynamically rather than statically. An increase in complexity entails systems that are non-stationary, and problems that arise with complex systems tend to be dynamic in nature, requiring solutions that are dynamic as well. When the problem changes, the solution to the problem should be able to adapt to reorganize itself- self organize- as changes in the system cause disruptions to the flow of productivity. In the practice of user-product interaction, the importance of efficiently managing complexity has increasingly gained significance as the fields of biomimetics and critical design have continued to mature. The proposed methodology to be explained in this research would inform designers in managing the complexity of product design.

Diab D.1, Teyssier C.1, Ragonnet S.2, Cavailles V2, Diab Assaf M3 1-3.Doctoral School of Science and Technology; Molecular and cellular biochemistry of cancer Laboratory; Lebanese University. 2.Institute of cancer research in Montpellier; Hormonal Signaling and cancer team; Montpellier

ABSTRACT Conceptual progress in the last decade has added two emerging hallmarks of Potential generality to this list:reprogramming of energy metabolism and evading immune Destruction (1). RIP140 (receptor interacting protein of 140 KDA) equally known as NRIP1 (nuclear receptor interacting protein 1), a coregulator of nuclear receptors, have several pathological-physiological roles, one of them the regulation of white adipocyte metabolism(2) Basing on that and on previous unpublished results in the host laboratory confirmed that the Warburg effect genes expressions are up regulated by RIP 140 in KO immortalized Mouse Embryonic Fibroblast cells(MEF) and that the inhibition of this effect by the 2-deoxyglucose ( inhibitor of hexokinase) reduce its proliferation capacity. We decided to investigate these results by using a different strategy to inhibit the Warburg effect by putting cells under stress. The morphological features of cells, cell counting assay by trypan blue and the MTT assay show that The RIP140KO cells were more sensitive to the glucose starvation than the WT cells by inducing cell death. by the RT-Qpcr, The expression of the apoptotic protein p53 was higher in WT cells than the RIP140KO cells under metabolic stress which is contrary to the expression of NOXA, a second apoptotic gene, that its expression goes in the same way with the expression of caspase 3 revealed by immunofluorescence. Moreover, the mRNA and Protein expression of Glut3 and G6PD were down regulated progressively under 0, 1 and 0 G/L of Glucose in RIP140KO cells but still up regulated comparing to the WT cells under stress suggesting that the KO cells are fully dependent on the Warburg effect. The elevated mRNA of RIP140 in WT cells might be the reason of the resistance of WT cells to cell death by activating other metabolic pathways. The treatment of cells with middle concentration of Galactose as a structural analogue to Glucose revealed that the RIP140KO cells were more flexible to Galactose than Glucose under the same condition. In conclusion, the RIP140 besides its capacity to inhibit the aerobic glycolysis features in WT cells might be capable to create equilibrium between the proliferation and cell death contrarily to the KO cells that they were sensitive even to the very low concentration of glucose by inducing apoptosis independently from the p53. The identification of the resistance pathway of WT cells to cell death should be investigated in the future.

Key words: RIP 140, Warburg effect, aerobic glycolysis, Glut3, G6PD, WTMEF, RIP140KO MEF, apoptosis. References:

1-Hanahan D, Weinberg RA. Hallmarks of cancer: the next generation.. Cell. 2011 Mar 4;144(5):646-74. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.02.013.

2- White R. et Leonardsson G. The nuclear receptor co-repressor Nrip1 (RIP140) is essential for female fertility Nature Medicine. 1368 - 1374 (2000) doi:10.1038/82183.

Epilepsy is a serious neurological disorder. One in 26 people in the United States are diagnosed with Epilepsy. However, despite its impact, very little is known about its electrophysiological underpinnings at the levels of both neurons and their embedded networks. Although electroencephalography (EEG) and intracranial recordings are helpful to diagnose the insult, these tools leave the mysteries behind the neural basis of the disease veiled. It's still a mystery why seizures start, spread and stop, and in order to understand the neural mechanisms behind epilepsy and epileptogenesis insults, we need first to understand the electrophysiological properties of the corresponding neurons at the cellular and network level, the ion channels that constitute their ingredients and the pharmacology associated with the corresponding brain activity. Behaviorally, individuals with epilepsy suffer from comprehension and vocal production deficits associated with aphasia, apraxia of speech, aprosodia, dysarthria, and aphonia. Most importantly, epileptic activity in the brains of children affect their language development that usually follows a progressive decline, although many nonverbal skills are left unaffected.

The songbird vocal system has emerged as the best-developed model for the neural basis of speech acquisition and production since songbirds are among the very few animals that learn their vocalizations through a process of vocal imitation, similar to humans. Songbird brains have a well-studied anatomy sharing striking homologies with the mammalian neocortex in regions associated with vocal acquisition and production as both regions share extremely similar input patterns, intrinsic microcircuits, and outputs. The telencephalic nucleus HVC (the acronym is the proper name of this nucleus), a region of the avian brain analogous to the mammalian layer III of the motor cortex, is the chief nucleus playing a major role in song learning and production. Similar to the mammalian brain as well, songbirds are known to exhibit a full range of vigilance states and ultradian patterns in EEG potentials, their cortical networks are well studied and their forebrains have been used as a model for studying epilepsy. The songbird forebrain anatomy contains specialized nuclei known as the song system nuclei that are associated with vocal learning and production, sleep and memory consolidation. The song system anatomy and physiology is well-characterized, giving technical advantage that would be hard otherwise to achieve in the mammalian cortex.

In this work, we will try to unravel the electrophysiological basis of epilepsy using zebra finches as an attractive model organism for our systems-level epilepsy project, especially for pediatric epilepsies and for those that are expressed during sleep and affect language development. First, epileptic seizures are induced in songbirds and we look at changes or abnormalities in their song's temporal and spectral features after the insult (postictal). Second, we record intracellularly from their HVC neurons in brain slices to check for the reasons their electrical activity changed after epilepsy induction, whether these changes are due to intrinsic ionic currents expressed in the HVC neurons or due to network effects. Third, we develop dynamical-system based Hodgkin-Huxley computational models of HVC neurons, particularly for HVCRA neurons (for their role in motor control), and fit the model to the collected data from brain slices. We will look for ways to induce epileptic-like electrical activity in these models at the level of the network and the intrinsic properties of the neurons themselves. This will then be tested and verified in the brain slice.

Bien que les détergents à vaisselle servent pour nettoyer, cependant ils peuvent être parfois toxiques pour l'homme et l'animal suite à une mauvaise utilisation. La composition des détergents varie, mais le surfactant anioniques est l'agent principal. Il existe peu de recherches sur ce genre de toxicité. Dans ce contexte, 200 échantillons d'eau après rinçage des ustensiles de cuisine ont été collectés ; la présence de traces de surfactants a été déterminée par une méthode de dosage semi qualitative montrant que 4% des échantillons recueillis contiennent de fortes traces de surfactants anioniques, 36% contiennent de faibles traces, alors que 60% sont dépourvus de traces. Nous avons administré à des souris blanches, versus témoin (n = 10/groupe), l'eau de rinçage qui contient de faibles traces de détergents ajoutée à leur eau de boisson durant 2 mois dans une proportion qui tient compte de la masse de la souris par rapport à celle de l'homme. Ces animaux ont été observés pendant cette période et pesés chaque semaine. Ils ont été ensuite sacrifiés et les principaux organes (foie, tube digestif, rein, cerveau) prélevés pour examen histologique au microscope optique et pour dosages biochimiques de la malondialdéhyde (MDA, Indicateur de peroxydation lipidique), de l'activité superoxyde dismutase (SOD), et des aminotransférases (AST, ALT). Les résultats n'ont pas montré un changement de poids par rapport au témoin ni une altération significative des tissus ni des enzymes AST, ALT. Cependant au niveau du foie, une augmentation de la peroxydation lipidique (30 %) a été notée ainsi qu'une diminution de l'activité SOD (25 %). En Conclusion, les traces de détergents sur les ustensiles ne provoquent pas un danger imminent, mais ils pourraient causer un stress oxydatif au foie, qui par extrapolation, ne devrait pas être négligé chez ceux qui possèdent une insuffisance hépatique.

Heavy metals tend to be highly persistent and accumulate not only in the environment, such as Lebanese coastal and fresh waters but also in variable organs including liver, kidneys and gonads causing infertility and decreased reproductive efficiency. The objectives of this study were to develop a reliable detection and assessment tool for lead accumulation in the testes, and to further observe the effect of lead chloride on spermatogenesis. Therefore, male mice (black or Swiss white albino) were presented with 0, 2, 4, 6, or 12 ppm of PbCl2 in multiple experiments and sacrificed at different stages of the spermatogenic cycle. Testes were collected for atomic absorbance spectrophotometry (AAS) and immune-fluorescent microscopy. Sperm extracted from the epididymis were evaluated for viability, motility and abnormality. Paraffin-embedded organs were sliced and stained with Hoechst and Rhodamine, fluorescent imagery was captured using a confocal laser microscope. Results showed that Pb absorbance, concentration and accumulation in the testes was 10 fold higher from day 9 till 27 with a mean % accumulation of 6.5 to 66.5 ± 5.19% respectively depending on lead concentration in water compared to day 0, but was reduced after day 27 and plateaued with a mean % accumulation 29.5 ± 5.19%. Pb accumulated in different spermatogonia, spermatids, and was detected in Leydig and sertoli cells starting day 27 and 36. The levels of abnormal sperms were higher in mice fed 6 and 12 ppm with a mean ranging between 43 to 63 ± 4.7 % in different region of the epididymis (cauda, corpus, caput) (P<0.05) in comparison to mice fed 0, 2, or 4 ppm PbCl2 with less than 20 ± 4.7 % of abnormal sperm. Effects of lead contamination alter spermatogenesis and decrease sperm-fertilizing ability as they affect the number and quality of spermatozoa, and affect all the cells of the semineferous tubules.

Descriptive Statement: This study investigates the combined roles of two tumor suppressor genes, p53 and Rb, on the regenerative capacity and fate of adult neural stem cells (aNSCs) in culture. Identifying the mechanisms that control the development and expansion of aNSCs might help improve the regenerative capacity of the brain in case of injury or neurodegenerative diseases. Introduction: Adult neurogenesis is highly regulated process that is restricted to aNSCs found in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the hippocampus and the subventricular zone (SVZ) lining the lateral ventricles in mammals. SVZ-aNSCs have unlimited self-renewal capacity and give rise to GABAergic interneurons in the olfactory bulb. This process requires a fine control and balance between cell proliferation and cell death. Loss of p53 was previously shown to enhance the self-renewal capacity and the rate of differentiation of aNSCs both in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, we have recently demonstrated that Rb specifically regulates progenitor proliferation and is needed for the long-term survival of adult-born OB interneurons. Given the above findings, we have examined here how both genes function together to control the developmental properties of aNSCs and progenitors in vitro. Methods: We induced a temporal deletion of Rb and/or p53 (conditional Knock-out, cKO) in aNSCs/progenitors in adult mice having their Rb and/or p53 genes floxed between two loxP sites and carrying the Nestin-CreERT2-YFP cassette. We performed primary cultures of dissected SVZ tissues and conducted neurosphere and differentiation assays. Results: Compared with wild type cultures and within each others, p53-cKO cultures and Rb-cKO; p53-cKO aNSCs/progenitors' cultures showed significant increase in their amplification rate. And the increase in the self-renewal capacity of NCPCs was found to be mediated by p53 alone. Thus cKO-NSCs generated more primary and secondary neurospheres and seem to have retained a strong differentiation potential. Moreover, both Rb and p53 seem to be required for the long-term survival of aNSPCs's progeny. Conclusion: The population of aNSCs/progenitors can be expanded in vitro by manipulation of the p53/Rb pathways without affecting aNSCs differentiation potential. However, we are presently testing this in vivo and whether long-term survival of adult-born neurons is affected by the dual loss of these genes.

Synthesis and Bioconjugation of water dispersible Nanoparticles for Potential applications in Cancerous Tumor Therapy

Kamil Rahme1, Esther Ghanem1, Michel Nakhl2, Roland El Hage2, Eddy souaid2, Monira Sarkis1 and Georges Minassian1 1Faculty of Natural & Applied Sciences, Department of sciences, Notre Dame University (NDU) Louaize, Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon. 2Lebanese University - Faculty of Sciences - Fanar Campus, Chemistry Physics Department, and Doctoral school, Lebanon kamil.rahme@ndu.edu.lb; eghanem@ndu.edu.lb; mnakhl@ul.edu.lb; roland_hage85@hotmail.com; esouaid@ul.edu.lb; mmsarkis@ndu.edu.lb; gbminassian@ndu.edu.lb

Abstract

Throughout the past two decades, researchers have been extensively studying various nanoparticles (NPs) in many biological applications, such as biomarkers for diagnostic and cancer therapeutic agents. In fact the small sizes of nanoparticles in the order of few nanometers to 100 nm allow them to interact with biomolecules (such as proteins, enzymes, antibodies and siRNA), and to be internalized in Cells.1 Furthermore, it is well known that the physical properties of materials especially noble metal nanoparticles vary enormously from the bulk. The size dependent optical properties of noble metal nanoparticles (especially gold and silver) are mainly due to the Surface Plasmon Resonance Band "SPR" due to the oscillation of the electrons on the surface of the nanoparticles upon interaction with light, allowed them to be widely used as a contrast agent in bio-imaging. Moreover, the inert surface of the gold and its high affinity to functional groups such as amino (-NH2) and thiols (-SH) facilitate their bioconjugation with molecules containing such functional groups.2

In an effort to further understand the potential of said particles, a set of experiments have been conducted. Briefly, in this study, the focus was on synthesizing stable, positively/negatively charged Gold (Au) and Silver (Ag) nanoparticles of different sizes in water, using multiple polymers such as chitosan, Poly-L-Lysine (PLL), Poly-Ethylene-Glycol (PEG) and Poly-Ethylene-Imine (PEI) as stabilizing agent. The obtained nanoparticles were characterized using Uv-visible spectroscopy, and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), and Zeta Potential Measurements. Physicochemical characterization have shown that the nanoparticles process optical size dependent properties, and they were slightly monodisperse (single size distribution), with a zeta potential positive, negative or nearly neutral depending on the polymer coating. Ultimately, these NPs will be optimized and studied as a potential drug delivery system for the treatment of cancerous tumors.3 On the other hand, to assess the safety of these NPs; their cytotoxicity was studied on various cancer cell lines, mainly human ovarian and prostate cancer cells in vitro. In addition, the synthesized NPs of different charges (Zeta potential negative, positive, or neutral) were tested on whole human blood samples, specifically on PMNCs (Neutrophils), using a Neutrophil Function Test. So far, our data showcase proper NPs design with varied and tolerable cytotoxicity. This paves the way for future usage of our NPs in drug delivery to targeted cancerous cell lines.4 In conclusion different sizes of Au and Ag nanoparticles were synthesized in water and Characterized. The cytotoxicity study has shown that they are of very low cytotoxicity, while we have shown that positively charged can activate Neutrophils. Further studies will be performed toward their use in drug deliver to cancer cells.

Keywords—Noble metals nanoparticles, Stabilization, Cytotoxicity, Polymers, water, Neutrophils.

Acknowledgments: We acknowledge financial support from the National Council for Scientific Research Lebanon (CNRS-L-GRP2015-3538).

References:

[1] OV Salata. Applications of nanoparticles in biology and medicine. Journal of Nanobiotechnology 2004, 2. http://www.jnanobiotechnology.com/content/2/1/3 [2] Y J Zhang, et al. Synthesis, properties, and optical applications of noble metal nanoparticle-biomolecule conjugates Chin Sci Bull, 2012, 57(2-3) 238-246 [3] J. Guo and K. Rahme et al. Biomimetic gold nanocomplexes for gene knockdown - will gold deliver dividends for siRNA nanomedicines? .Nano Research, 2015, 8 (10), 3111-3140 [4] Bioconjugated Gold Nanoparticles Enhance Cellular Uptake: A Proof of Concept Study for siRNA Delivery in Prostate Cancer Cells. J Guo et al., Int J Pharm., 2016 509 (1-2), 16-27.

Leukemia is a type of cancer of blood cells. Hence, this has to be treated at initial stage before the situation worsens. There is lot of natural cure for leukemia which helps incurring the disease! (1) Most patients with leukemia are treated with chemotherapy. Some also may have radiation therapy and/or bone marrow transplantation (BMT) or biological therapy. Those therapies leads to a variety of side effects (hair loss, infertility, damage to hoemopoetic tissue…) [2]. The aim of cancer research nowadays is to find a drug with selective cytotoxicity, killing cancer cells, and causing less side effects than the current therapies. Macro-algae also called seaweeds are largely productive and extremely diverse plants that generate a multitude of bioactive compounds. Between all the marine organisms brown seaweeds seems to have a potent anti-cancer effect against many cancer cell lines [3]. In our paper, we assessed the cytotoxic activity of three crude extracts of a brown algae "Padina pavonica" collected on the Lebanese coast, on Jurkat human cancer cell line using the trypan bleu exclusion assay. All the extracts prepared from P.pavonica were cytotoxic on Jurkat cancer cells: the aqueous extract with IC50= 21.78 μg/mL, methanol: water extract with IC50=31.1μg/mL, and the n-hexane extract with IC50= 40 μg/mL after 72 hours of treatment. More researches concerning the identity of the cytotoxic compounds in the crude extracts are crucial to identify novel and efficient anti-cancer drugs.

On one hand, seaweeds are nowadays well known for being rich in bioactive molecules and offering many opportunities to conduct researches in different sectors such as health, environment, industry, cosmetics... On another hand, cancer remains, till this day, a serious public health problem [1] and most of the anticancer treatments cause several undesirable side effects on normal cells [2]. Therefore, curative therapies for this disease consists of using crude extracts from algae (a considerably requested way to fight back cancer). Several varieties of the macroalgae marine Sargassum have presented interesting and beneficial effects in regards to this subject [3]. Hence, the Lebanese species Sargassum vulgarae (Sargassaceae), harvested from Barbara Coast (North of Lebanon), was selected for this study. Two solvents were chosen to prepare the algae extracts in order to test their cytotoxic activity against Jurkat human cancer cell line: water: ethanol (V/V) and chloroform: ethanol (V/V). The trypan blue exclusion test showed that the two crude extracts have a cytotoxic activity in a time and dose dependent manner. The IC50 values were respectively 136.907 μg/ mL and 49.056 μg/ mL after 72 hours of treatment. Similarly, these two extracts showed an antioxidant effect - this found after conducting a DPPH scavenging activity assay. Furthermore, the results of Chromatography GC-MS show that this algae is quite rich in fatty acids, while the results of the Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy show that it is rich in trace elements such as calcium, magnesium and iron. In conclusion, Sargassum vulgare can be used as an alternative for therapeutic use for the treatment of leukaemia cancer and diseases caused by oxidative stress. Similarly, these extracts proved an antioxidant effect which can serve in preventing further diseases.

Evaluation of anticancer effect of new natural Berberine encapsulation within copolymers micelles against colon cancer cells Sayed Antoun1,3, Rana Mouazen1, Saada Diab1, Magalie Iranie1 , Mona diab assaf1,2 1 Molecular tumorigenesis and anticancer pharmacology laboratory, faculty of sciences-section2, Lebanese university, Lebanon 2 Doctoral school of sciences and technology, Lebanese university, Lebanon 3 Chemistry department, faculty of sciences-section3, Lebanese university, Lebanon. mdiabassaf@ul.edu.lb , sayedantoun@yahoo.fr ; Vectoring systems are found to be efficient in drugs delivery 1. These systems have been discovered in order to improve the hydrophilic properties of alkaloids with pharmacological properties such as berberine. Major alkaloid characterization of Berberis species2, has been intensively investigated for its pharmacological properties and showed the beneficial effects for prevention and treatment of many diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases3. This was attributed to its ability of inhibition melanoma cancer cells migration 4, and the growth of human tongue squamous carcinoma tumors in a murine xenograft model5, and exert a cytotoxic effect against many cell lines 6 . Also, it targets the signalling pathway such as NF-kB and PI3K in leukemic cell lines7. Apoptosis is the cause of this cell death in many cell lines and xenografts 7-8. It can activate the mitochondrial/ caspase signalling to enhance apoptosis 9. To enhance bioavailability and anti-cancer efficiency of berberine (BER) in the absence of any organic solvent i.e. DMSO, direct copolymer/berberine micelle delivery system was prepared in aqueous physiological solution. Using several carboxylic /acrylamide homo and copolymers as emulsifiers, BER-containing water micelles were prepared and then dialyzed to form clear anticancer micelles containing amorphous BER nanoparticles. Organic free BER-loaded micelles were used in vitro. Successfully, these encapsulations showed an improvement of antiproliferative effect of berberine measured by MTT and by counting with trypan blue, in colon cancer cell lines HT-29. This effect was enhanced in the presence of the copolymer maleic/carboxylic acid sodium salt compared to berberine /DMSO system. In contrast, copolymers of carboxylic/acrylamide showed problems in the release of the active molecule. However, these (co)polymers alone did not show any toxicity to the treated cells, confirming their biocompatibility to cells used. Organic free (BER) encapsulation within copolymers may be an advantageous strategy in anticancer therapy, without any potential cytototoxicity in HT-29 cell line. These results allowed us to propose several future models of micelle complexe in order to improve the treatment of cancer cells by nanocarriers technique. Also a better understanding of this synergy between berberine /copolymer mixed micelle based on anticancer mechanistic studies will be considered shortly.

Keywords:encapsulation, copolymers, berberine, complexed micelle anticancer

References

1. Tiwari, G. et al. Drug delivery systems: An updated review. Int. J. Pharm. Investig. 2, 2-11 (2012). 2. Singh, A. et al. Quantitative determination of isoquinoline alkaloids and chlorogenic acid in Berberis species using ultra high performance liquid chromatography with hybrid triple quadrupole linear ion trap mass spectrometry. J. Sep. Sci. 38, 2007-2013 (2015). 3. Ahmadiankia, N. et al. Berberine suppresses migration of MCF-7 breast cancer cells through down-regulation of chemokine receptors. Iran. J. Basic Med. Sci. 19, 125-131 (2016). 4 Singh, T., Vaid, M., Katiyar, N., Sharma, S. & Katiyar, S. K. Berberine, an isoquinoline alkaloid, inhibits melanoma cancer cell migration by reducing the expressions of cyclooxygenase-2, prostaglandin E₂ and prostaglandin E₂ receptors. Carcinogenesis 32, 86-92 (2011). 5. Ho, Y.-T. et al. Berberine inhibits human tongue squamous carcinoma cancer tumor growth in a murine xenograft model. Phytomedicine Int. J. Phytother. Phytopharm. 16, 887-890 (2009). 6. Refaat, A. et al. Berberine enhances tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand-mediated apoptosis in breast cancer. Oncol. Lett. 6, 840-844 (2013). 7. Diab, S. et al. Berberis libanotica extract targets NF-κB/COX-2, PI3K/Akt and mitochondrial/caspase signalling to induce human erythroleukemia cell apoptosis. Int. J. Oncol. 47, 220-230 (2015). 8. Seo, Y.-S. et al. Berberine-induced anticancer activities in FaDu head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells. Oncol. Rep. 34, 3025-3034 (2015). 9. Patil, J. B., Kim, J. & Jayaprakasha, G. K. Berberine induces apoptosis in breast cancer cells (MCF-7) through mitochondrial-dependent pathway. Eur. J. Pharmacol. 645, 70-78 (2010).

Le cancer colorectal est la deuxième cause mondiale de décès après les cancers des poumons. Malgré les différents types de traitements qui sont disponibles pour les patients souffrant du cancer colorectal, cette maladie reste un problème au niveau mondial d'où la nécessité de trouver de nouveaux agents thérapeutiques. Les espèces de Rheum sont considérées des plantes médicinales contenant des activités biologiques importantes. Parmi ces espèces, nous citons le Rheum ribes qui pousse en Turquie, au Liban et en Iran. Les espèces du Rheum contiennent des polyphénols trouvés dans les parties souterraines de la plante. Quelques études ont montré l'effet anticancéreux d'extraits éthanoliques des racines et des rhizomes et des composés actifs des espèces turques et persanes du Rheum ribes concernant l'inhibition de la migration cellulaire et la prolifération des cellules cancéreuses. À notre connaissance, aucune étude n'a été réalisée sur l'effet anticancéreux de l'espèce libanaise du Rheum ribes, de plus, l'effet de Rheum ribes sur des lignées dérivant de cancer colorectal n'a jamais été testé. Le but de notre étude est de tester le potentiel effet anticancéreux de différents types d'extraits du rhizome de l'espèce libanaise de R.ribes sur des lignées cellulaires établies (HT-29 et HCT-116) dérivées du cancer colorectal. Les rhizomes de Rheum ribes ont été collectés de Tannourine en février à une altitude plus de 1500m. Nous avons préparé 5 types d'extraits: extrait à l'hexane, au dichlorométhane, à l'éthanol 100%, à l'éthanol 70 % et aqueux. Nos résultats ont montré que tous les extraits ont une activité antioxydante. Toutefois, seuls les extraits éthanolique (EERR) et dichlorométhane (EDRR) ont réduit la viabilité des cellules du cancer colorectal HT-29 et HCT-116 humaines d'une manière dose et temps dépendante. Après 72h de traitement par EERR, IC50 est 187 µg/ml pour les cellules HT29 et 90.18 µg/ml pour les cellules HCT-116. Quant à l'EDRR, après 72 h de traitement les IC50 étaient de 165.8 µg/ml pour les cellules HT29 et de 93.3 µg/ml pour les cellules HCT-116. Suite à ces résultats encourageants, nous avons choisi de continuer notre étude avec ces deux extraits seulement. Les extraits EERR et EDRR ont montré un pouvoir antitumorigène en inhibant la formation des colonies des cellules cancéreuses dans un milieu semi-solide (test a l'agar mou). L'effet des extraits sur la migration cellulaire a été évalué en utilisant le test de cicatrisation de plaie 'wound healing. Le traitement par l'extrait éthanolique a significativement inhibé la migration des cellules HT-29 (IC50 pour EERR est de 68.5 µg/ml ; IC50 pour EDRR est de 71 µg/ml) et HCT-116 (IC50 pour EERR est de 68 µg/ml ; IC50 pour EDRR est de 71.8 µg/ml) par rapport au contrôle apres 24 h de la realisatoin de la plaie. Par ailleurs, une inhibition de l'adhésion après 6h de l'ensemencement cellulaire a été également observée après le traitement par ces extraits. L'étude par western blot a montré que le niveau d'expression de la forme native de la protéine poly (ADP ribose) polymérase (PARP) a diminué après 48h de traitement par l'EERR et l'EDRR dans les cellules HT-29 et HCT-116 ce qui suggère que cette protéine a été clivée suite au déclenchement de l'apoptose par les deux extraits. En conclusion, nos résultats suggèrent l'importance de l'espèce libanaise Rheum ribes dans le traitement du cancer colorectal, en effet, des effets antiprolifératifs, antitumorigènes, et anti migratoires ont été observés après traitement par les extraits éthanolique et dichlorométhane des rhizomes de cette plante.

Man is constantly exposed to many foreign substances, called xenobiotics, such as drugs, dietary compounds or air pollutants. The most toxic among them are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and are generally formed during incomplete combustion of organic matter, cigarette smoke and broiled food. PAHs constitute a large class of chemical compounds that consist off fused aromatic rings. Moreover, they are lipophilic and may be toxic and carcinogenic, depending on the structure and the number of rings in the molecule. Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) is an important member of the PAH family and has served as model for the studies of the metabolic pathway and carcinogenic effects of PAHs. Indeed, there are several epidemiological studies showing the association between BaP exposure and different human cancers especially lung cancer. In addition to fixing some specific receptors, BaP can also bind to a small number of xenobiotics metabolic enzymes (XME) including cytochrome P450s (CYP) as the key players. CYPs are involved in many stages of the biosynthesis and biodegradation of endogenous compounds and play an important role in the metabolism of an infinite number of PAHs, allowing their removal from the body. They are mainly involved in the first step of the process of detoxification also known as Phase I (Figure1), where a polar group will be grafted onto the BaP. Depending on the position of hydroxylation, the metabolized BaP will therefore be transformed either to 1) more soluble compound that are then excreted or 2) compound which are more toxic to the cell (Figure1). This raises the question on how can the same substrate (BaP) bind to CYP1A1 and be metabolized at different positions? In this work, we determined 2.35Å structures of human CYP1A1 complexed with B(a)P. This will allow us to gain insight into the metabolism of the most cancerogenic xenobiotic compound.

Background: Nutraceuticals provide added health benefits for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a green tea catechin, has been shown to possess such anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects. Aim: To evaluate the molecular modulation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α), nuclear factor Kappa B (NF-kB), Interleukin 6 (IL-6) by EGCG on experimental colitis . Materials and Methods: Thirty five male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: Normal control group (n=5), EGCG group (n=9), TNBS group (n=9), and TNBS+EGCG group (n=12). For both TNBS and EGCG treated groups, 1mg/Kg EGCG was administered daily by intraperitoneal injection, starting one week before the induction. At days 3, 10 and 17, rats were sacrificed and the descending colon was collected. The mRNA expressions of IL-6, TNF-α and NF-kB were measured by the polymerase chain reaction. In addition, the oxidative stress was studied by determination of ROS expression using dihydroethinidine (DHE) staining. Results: The results showed that EGCG caused a significant decrease in the mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines Il-6, TNF-α and NF-kB compared to respective non-treated groups. In addition, ROS expression was reduced. Conclusion: These data provide evidence that EGCG is beneficial in TNBS-induced colitis; it exerts an antioxidant activity via decreasing ROS, and an anti-inflammatory effect via ameliorating histological findings and reducing Il-6, TNF-α and NF-kB.

Background: Despite the fact that vitamin D plays an important role in a broad range of physiological processes, low level of vitamin D is still widespread globally. In recent years, there have been reports suggesting a high prevalence of low vitamin D intakes and vitamin D deficiency in Lebanon. This is assumed to be the result of inadequate exposure to sun (ultraviolet radiation) and insufficient consumption of vitamin D rich foods. Several studies have shown that poor vitamin D status may increase the risk of developing the metabolic syndrome (MetS), a cluster of conditions that include three of the following five conditions: abdominal obesity, elevated blood pressure (BP), elevated triglycerides (Tg), elevated fasting blood glucose (FBG), and reduced high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.

Objectives and Rationale: The main objectives of this study are to assess the prevalence of MetS/its components as well as investigate the association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations and MetS/its components among a sample of Lebanese adults.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on Notre Dame University staff/faculty members (n=256) in the main, North and Shouf campuses. An e-invite was sent to all staff and faculty members and graduate students were visiting their offices to encourage them to participate. Those who agreed to participate were asked to sign an informed consent form. The study questionnaires including a background questionnaire, a short-form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and a food frequency questionnaire to estimate vitamin D intake were filled out during a 30- minute face-to-face interview. The Nutritionist Pro diet analysis software was used to generate estimates of dietary intake of vitamin D. Participants were invited to the nutrition laboratory to collect anthropometric measurements (weight, height, waist circumference (WC), body composition (measured by InBody720) and a fasting blood sample by trained dietitians and nurse, respectively. Blood samples collected at the regional campuses were transported on ice to the main campus. Blood samples were stored at -20oC for a maximum of 6 weeks before analysis at the Biology Lab at NDU-Main Campus. 25(OH)D was measured using ELISA, while serum Tg, HDL-cholesterol and fasting FBG were measured using a dry chemistry analyzer Vitros 250. MetS components were classified according to the National Cholesterol Education Programme, Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III), FBG ≥ 110 mg/dL, obesity: WC >102 cm in men and >88 cm in women, BP ≥130/85 mmHg, Tg ≥150 mg/dL, HDL < 40 mg/dL in men and < 50 mg/dL in women. Vitamin D status was defined according the institute of medicine (IOM) as deficient if 25(OH)D was below 30 nmol/L (12 ng/mL), inadequate if 25(OH)D is between 30 and < 50 nmol/L (12 and < 20 ng/mL) and sufficient if 25(OH)D levels were at least 50 nmol/L (20 ng/mL).

Statistical analysis: Descriptive statistics for the total sample were performed. Quantitative and qualitative measurements were summarized as means ± standard deviation and n (%), respectively. Comparisons of continuous and categorical variables were performed using independent 2-sample T Test and the chi square test or Fischer's exact test respectively. Statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 for Windows. A p-value less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: A total of 256 participants (49% men and 51% women) were included in the analysis with a mean age of 42.4 ± 11.5 years, waist circumference of 96.4 ± 12.2 cm and mean dietary vitamin D intake of 2.2 ±3.2 µg. Among participants, 53.0% held a graduate degree, 62.1% were non-smokers and 71.0% did not use sunscreen. The mean vitamin D level was 25.3±12.9 ng/mL. Among participants, 12.1% had vitamin D deficiency, 26.6% were generally considered inadequate, and 61.3% were sufficient. The prevalence of MetS was 23.4% in the overall study population; men had a higher prevalence of MetS (34.3%) compared to women (12.8%) (p<0.05). The prevalence of central obesity was 51.2% (95%CI: 45.3-57.3), elevated BP was 22.3% (95%CI: 17.0-27.4), impaired FBG was 19.1 % (95%CI: 14.3-24.1); low HDL was 25.8% (95%CI: 20.7-31.2) and hypertriglyceridemia was 34.0% (95%CI: 28.1-39.7). Among MetS components, only hypertriglyceridemia was associated with vitamin D status; those who had inadequate vitamin D status had a higher prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia (43.4%) compared to those who had a sufficient status (28.0%, p<0.01). MetS was more prevalent among participants who had inadequate vitamin D status (31.3%) compared to those who had a sufficient status (20.4%, p=0.03). Furthermore, individuals who had MetS had lower vitamin D levels (21.8±10.4 ng/mL) compared to individual who did not have MetS (26.4±13.5 ng/mL, p=0.01). Further data analysis is underway to examine the association between MetS/its components and vitamin D status in multivariate analysis.

Conclusion: Better vitamin D status is associated with a lower prevalence of MetS and hypertriglyceridemia. Accordingly, improving vitamin D status might assist in reducing the prevalence of MetS.

Background: Vitamin D, or calciferol, is a fat soluble compound with a four-ringed cholesterol backbone. It is obtained from two sources: sunlight exposure mostly and diet. There is no universal cutoff value to define vitamin D deficiency. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is increasing globally, and hypovitaminosis D is high in Lebanon. Many studies showed that 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels are inversely correlated with all the parameters of obesity, including BMI, waist circumference (WC) and body fat. However, the independent association between vitamin D status and measures of obesity (BMI, WC), body composition (fat and lean muscle mass) and body fat distribution needs further examination.

Objectives: The objectives of this study are to determine the prevalence and correlates of suboptimal vitamin D status, and to assess the association between body composition (total fat mass and muscle mass) and body fat distribution (waist to hip ratio and upper to lower body fat ratio) and vitamin D levels/status, independent of obesity.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on 256 NDU faculty and staff members. Questionnaires on dietary intake (food frequency questionnaire), physical activity (International Physical Activity Questionnaire), lifestyle, health status, and demographic variables (background questionnaire) were filled out during a 30 minutes face-to-face interview in the three NDU campuses (main: Zouk Mosbeh, Shouf and North Lebanon) by four graduate students. Anthropometric (weight, height, waist circumference (WC), body composition (measured by InBody720): waist to hip ratio (WHR), percent body fat (PBF), upper to lower body fat ratio, and body mass index (BMI)) and serum 25(OH)D were assessed. Waist circumference was considered risky if it exceeded 102 cm in men, or 88 cm in women as per the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Guidelines. The Nutritionist Pro diet analysis software was used to generate estimates of dietary intake of vitamin D. Vitamin D status was assessed according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) cut-offs (deficiency: <50 nmol/L / <20 ng/mL; inadequacy: 50- less than 75 nmol/L / 20- less than 30 ng/mL and adequacy: ≥ 75 nmol/L / ≥30 ng/mL). Statistical analysis: Descriptive statistics for the total sample were performed. Quantitative and qualitative measurements were summarized as mean ± standard deviation and n (%), respectively. Comparisons of continuous and categorical variables were performed using independent 2-sample T Test/Mann-Whitney-U-test and the chi square test /Fisher's exact test, respectively. Statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 for Windows. A p-value less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: A total of 256 participants (49% men and 51% women) were included in the analysis with a mean age of 42.4 ± 11.5 years, waist circumference of 96.4 ± 12.2 cm and mean dietary vitamin D intake of 2.2 ±3.2 µg. Among participants, 53.0% held a graduate degree, 62.1% were non-smokers and 71.0% did not use sunscreen. Of the respondents, 0.9% were underweight, 35.3% were normal, 37.6% were overweight and 25.9% were obese. Among participants, 36.2% had vitamin D deficiency, 31.2% had inadequate levels, and 25.4% had adequate levels. The mean vitamin D level was 25.3±12.9 ng/mL and did not differ neither by gender nor by age. Mean percent body fat was shown to be higher (33.9 ± 7.6%) in females compared to males (27.8 ± 6.9%), (p<0.05). Mean upper to lower body fat ratio was 1.8±0.2 in females compared to 2.1 ±0.3 in males (p<0.05). Mean waist to hip ratio in males was 0.93 ± 0.05 compared to 0.89 ± 0.074 in females (p<0.05). Women in the first tertile of PBF and upper to lower body fat ratio, and in the healthy WC category, had a higher prevalence of sufficient vitamin D status (48.3%, 36.8%, 36.7%, respectively) compared to women in the third tertile and risky WC category (10.3%, 7.7%, 14.1%, respectively), (p<0.01). However, this association was not observed in males. Females who had a healthy WC had higher vitamin D levels (27.6 ± 11.8 ng/mL) compared to those who had a risky WC (22.0 ± 9.8 ng/mL, p<0.01), however, this association did not reach significance in males (p=0.06). Further data analysis is in progress in order to determine the association between vitamin D status and other factors, including markers of inflammation, and to examine the relationship between vitamin D status and body composition controlling for confounders.

Conclusion: Measures of adiposity were associated with vitamin D status in females, but not in males. The relationship between vitamin D status and body fat could be mediated by gender specific hormones.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer and the second cause of death by cancer worldwide. Incidence is increasing and the efficiency of treatments is still low. Thus, prevention seems to be the most effective way for reducing the mortality rate. Diet is a modifiable factor with preventive potential. The links between food and HCC risk have been poorly investigated. Strong evidences exist only for the relationship between liver carcinogenesis and alcohol abuse (risk factor) or coffee consumption (protective effect). It has been suggested that some foods, such as fruit, vegetables, fish and white meat, have a protective effect, whereas red and processed meat seems to be associated with an elevated risk of HCC. However, the results were conflicting. Moreover, since 80% of HCC cases occur after cirrhosis from various etiologies, it is of special interest to investigate the impact of diet in this specific population. Thus, the aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between dietary factors and HCC risk in a French population of cirrhotic patients.

Methods: Between 2008 and 2012, 401 cirrhotic patients without HCC (controls) and 181 cirrhotic patients with HCC (cases) were recruited inthe French multicenter case-control study CiRCE (Cirrhose et Risque de Carcinome hépatocellulaire dans le grand Est) from six academic hospitals of the North-East of France (Besancon, Dijon, Metz, Nancy, Reims and Strasbourg).Dietary data were collected through a diet history questionnaire. It assesses quantitative and qualitative food consumption over the year before inclusion and takes into account seasonal variations. Daily gram intake of 208 food items, total energy intake (Kcal) as well as fibers, vitamins and minerals were converted bya diet composition tablefrom the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety. Qualitative variables, expressed as percentages, were compared by Fisher exact test. Quantitative variables, expressed as median with Interquartile Range (IQR) were compared by non-parametric Wilcoxon tests. The daily consumptionsof cases and controls, divided in tertileswere compared by multivariate unconditional logistic regression and expressed as odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) and p for trend.

Results: HCC cases were older than controls (64.4 years vs 59 years, p<0.001). BMI was close in the two groups: 26.8 [IQR 23.9-30.1] for controls and 27.6 [IQR 24-31.1] for HCC patients (p=0.10). There was a significant association between occupational physical activity and HCC risk (p=0.03). Moreover, the majority of patients in both groups were physically inactive: 143 patients (79%) in HCC group and 285 patients (71.1%) in controls, respectively. Cases presented more often diabetes mellitus (50.6%) than controls (33.5%), p<0.001. The following factors characterized cirrhotic patients with HCC when compared to cirrhotic controls: higher alcohol, carbohydrate, processed meat, giblets and vegetables consumption but lower intake of coffee/tea, sugar, deserts, fruits and fruit juices. However, after adjustment, none of the studied food groups were significantly associated with HCC risk in our cirrhotic population.

Conclusion: Our preliminary results did not allow identifying dietary factors that influenced the risk of HCC in our French cirrhotic population. We need to precise our results according to etiology of cirrhosis and to explore interaction with biological parameters that will be able in 2017.A prospective analysis of the development of HCC among controls after 5 years of follow-up will be of special interest too.

Influenza A virus (IAV) poses significant threat to human. The high evolution rate of influenza viruses results in the emergence of strains that are resistant to antiviral drugs or can no longer be encountered by annual vaccines. Therefore, it is important to better understand cellular factors involved in influenza virus life cycle, which can be then targeted to prevent infection. Sphingomyelinases (SMases) are enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of sphingomyelin (SM) into phosphocholine and ceramide. Attachment of some pathogens to their receptors at the plasma membrane can activate acid sphingomyelinase (ASMase) and trigger the formation of ceramide platforms, which can modulate viral infections. IAV utilizes lipid rafts during its entry and budding from the cells, however, the details of entry mechanism and the role of SMases and their substrate SM in IAV infection have not yet been addressed. In this study, we aim to better understand the role of SM hydrolysis pathway in IAV pathogenesis.

The effect of desipramine, an ASMase inhibitor, on replication of IAV in human lung adenocarcinoma epithelial cell line (A549) was investigated. IAV replication in ASMase deficient fibroblasts (NPD cells) and normal human fibroblasts was assessed. ASMase activity was assayed in mock-infected and IAV-infected cells at different time points. Additionally, the

effect of SM depletion using exogenous ASMase on IAV replication was examined. Viral titers were determined by either TCID50 (50% Tissue Culture Infectious Dose assay) or plaque assay.

Pharmacological inhibition of ASMase by desipramine had no effect on IAV replication in A549 cells. However, IAV replication in NPD cells was not compromised, but was rather enhanced compared to normal fibroblasts. In addition, ASMase activity levels were not changed in presence of IAV infection. Depletion of plasma membrane SM by exogenous ASMase reduced virus production, indicating that membrane SM might be required for IAV infection.

Our study reveals that ASMase negatively modulates IAV infection and that SM is an important modulator that is required for IAV replication. Studies to understand the exact mechanism underlying the modulation of IAV replication by SM are ongoing.

Leishmania is a vector-borne parasitic kinetoplastid protozoan that causes leishmaniasis, one of the major neglected tropical diseases. Leishmaniasis ranges from cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), to mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL) and visceral leishmaniasis (VL) which is fatal if left untreated. Recently, CL outbreaks have been reported in a number of Lebanese regions. These coincide with the dramatic increase in the number of Syrian refugees in several rural areas . In fact, the crisis in the Syrian Arab Republic that started in March 2011 has resulted in outbreaks of a large number of previously overlooked diseases in the country itself, as well as in neighbouring countries including Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon (WHO, 2012). A major concern is the transportation of such-vector borne diseases across the borders to other countries hosting refugees. Since then, cases of CL, usually associated with Leishmania tropica in this region, have been drastically increasing in Lebanon relative to the previous years (2001-2012) especially after the leishmaniasis outbreak in 2012. Because of its similar clinical manifestations to other local diseases such as sarcoidosis, cutaneous tuberculosis and even malignant melanoma , CL is often misdiagnosed. Also, L. tropica have been shown resistance to several treatment regimens. Several molecular typing methods have been used for the molecular detection of L. tropica. However, no standard typing method has been proposed. Also, with only one L. tropica whole-genome sequence (WGS) available, the evident caveat in the available genomic information hinders the way to study mechanisms of resistance and lateral gene transfer (LTG). In this study, we propose to perform WGS on a group of clinically diverse L. tropica isolates representing different patient's phenotypes causing the CL outbreaks in Lebanon. The tremendous amount of information generated through WGS, will provide an important breakthrough in the comparative evolutionary genomics and the understanding of patterns of LGT and drug resistance in this species. Of an especial importance, will be the correlation of the obtained genotypes with the patients' phenotypes and clinical manifestation of the CL for more accurate diagnostic scheme and phenotype prediction. Another aim of this study would be to design and optimize a MLST scheme specific for L. tropica providing a reliable and sensitive typing of this isolate causing outbreaks in Lebanon. A standardized MLST protocol that is suitable for assignment of L. tropica isolates to genetic lineages and for higher resolution diversity studies has not yet been developed.

Introduction In nature, vitamin E derivatives can exist in eight different forms which are grouped in two main categories, namely Tocopherols (TP) and Tocotrienols (T3). Each category includes four derivatives which differ in the position of the methyl group, generating alpha, beta, gamma and delta subtypes. Even though all these subtypes possess antioxidant effects, several new studies report that tocotrienols are more potent than tocopherols in promoting cancer cell death. In addition to the known antioxidant effect of beta tocotrienol (β-T3), gamma tocotrienol (γ-T3) appears to have a pro-apoptotic, anti-proliferative, anti-invasive and anti-inflammatory activity in several types of cancer cells. Gamma tocotrienol showed anti-proliferative effect and resulted in apoptosis induction through the activation of pro-caspases in prostate cancer cells (Yap, et al., 2008). However, the effect of the beta subtype on cancer cells is still not well studied. In the present study, we assessed and compared the anti-proliferative activity of Tocotrienol β and Tocotrienol γ in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell line, namely U937. We also investigated the potential pro-apoptotic effect of both Tocotrienols separately on U937 and their cell cycle effect on this cell line. Materials and Methods U937 cells, purchased from ATCC, were grown in Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum and 100 units of penicillin and streptomycin in a humidified incubator at 37°C and 5% CO2. Tocotrienols (Abcam), were dissolved in DMSO and diluted with RPMI. Cells were seeded in 96-well plates at a density of 1x105, and were treated with various concentrations of beta tocotrienol, gamma tocotrienol separately for 24 hours. Cytotoxicity assays were performed using MTT (Roche), according to the manufacturer's instructions. The percentage viability of cells was assessed by measuring the absorbance at 570 nm using the Varyoskan flash (Thermo Scientific). In order to determine whether the decrease in cell viability was due to apoptosis induction, Cell Death Elisa was performed to detect the degree of histone complexed DNA fragmentation, which is a hallmark of apoptosis. To study the effect of the compounds used on cell cycle, cells were treated for 24 hours with various drugs, fixed with absolute ethanol and then stained with propidium iodide (Sigma Aldrich). DNA content was assessed using the accuri flow cytometer. Furthermore, the pro-apoptotic effect of the compounds used separately and in combination was investigated by using the Annexin-V- FITC and PI kit (abcam), and cells were analyzed using flow cytometry. Results A decrease in proliferation of U937 cells in a dose dependent manner was observed upon treatment with both forms of vitamin E derivatives; however, β-T3 was more potent than γ-T3 in promoting cell death with lower IC50 values. Cells treated with the beta subtype released more DNA fragments than the gamma form and at lower doses confirming a more significant apoptosis induction by β-T3. In addition, the results obtained confirm the effect of both forms of vitamin E derivatives in promoting cell cycle arrest. Annexin-V-PI analysis showed an increase in the amount of Annexin-V-FITC positive and Propidium Iodide positive cells, further proving the pro-apoptotic effect of both tocotrienols with a pre-dominant effect seen upon using beta tocotrienol. Conclusion In conclusion, beta and gamma tocotrienols exhibit promising anti-cancer therapeutic effects, with apoptosis induction, on U937 leukemic cells in vitro. Beta tocotrienols appeared to be more potent in inducing these effects. However, further studies are needed to determine the underlying molecular pathways involved in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis induction.

Parthenolide (PTL), a natural sesqueterpene lactones is a phytochemical and principal active component in Tanacetum parthenium, the feverfew medicinal plant. I addition to its anti-inflammatory effect, Parthenolide was reported to possess a potent anti-cancer effect on a variety of malignancies. PTL antitumor activity depends on different mechanisms. It is mainly known as an inhibitor of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and recently described as an epigenetic modulator. Primary effusion Lymphoma (PEL) is a rare AIDS-associated B-cell neoplasm, caused by Human Herpes 8 virus (HHV8) latent infection, and represents a unique clinical manifestation, as it arises as malignant effusions in body cavities with no tumor mass. PEL is life threatening to immunocompromised and elderly people since it is known to relapse after standard chemotherapy and treatments. Thus the need for new effective, targeted drugs. In this study, we aim to elucidate the anti-tumor activities and the underlying apoptotic molecular mechanism of PTL on in vitro and ex vivo PEL preclinical models. And because epigenetic modifications are crucial in tumor progression, we aim to further decipher the epigenetic markers and targets of PTL on PEL. Our preliminary trials, show that PTL holds a potent anti-proliferative effect on PEL cells and their corresponding ascites. Also, PTL increases preG1 population in cell cycle, upregulates p53 expression and lead to PARP cleavage on PEL cells and ascites. Also, PTL leads to changes in expression of the epigenetic marker DNMT1 and its potential target p21. Further investigation on the role of PTL, on NF-κB pathway and on different apoptotic markers such as Bax and Bcl2 as well as in vivo survival study on PEL-like NOD/SCID mice will be explored. Considering our results, PTL might be a promising drug in treating PEL.

Legumes association with an agricultural interest plant (rape, wheat…) is known to improve soil structure and fertility. In fact, previous studies highlighted that legume introduction, by rotation and co-cropping, in classical agricultural systems improves soil nitrogen and carbon contents, soil porosity, but also reduce soil compaction and the use of chemical fertilizer and pesticide. In addition, N2 fixation by legumes increased significantly crop yields. Agromining is a recent green technology based on the establishment of agricultural systems on naturally metal-rich (ultramafic) soils to produce high value metal compounds such as nickel (Ni), with the final aim to restore soil agricultural functions. This goal implies to obtain an important biomass production of hyperaccumulator plants that can extract metals and concentrate them in aerial parts. Using legumes in agromining cultural systems could increase hyperaccumulator biomass production by enhancing soil fertility. Moreover, co-cropping or rotation with legumes could protect environment from chemical treatments (herbicides and fertilizers). A three months rhizobox experiment was carried out in controlled conditions to study the effect of a legume (Vicia sativa) associated with a hyperaccumulator plant (Alyssum murale) on structure and physicochemical properties of an ultramafic soil and on root architecture of the hyperaccumulator. The experiment had a completely randomized block design with three replicates of the following four treatments: co-cropping of both species (Co), rotation of both species (Ro), fertilized mono-culture of A. murale (FMo) and control (non-fertilized bulk soil, BS). Plants were harvested after 105 days and different parameters were measured on plant parts and rhizosphere soil. Geostatistics were used to model the spatial distribution of the measured variables, and relationships between them were tested. Co treatments showed the highest values of plant parameters in comparison to FMo (biomass and C, N contents of shoot and roots). Co had the highest Ni content (shoot and roots) in comparison to other treatments. Laser diffraction granulometry showed that Co rhizosphere soils had greater particles size and better aggregation in comparison to other treatments. The spatial variability of Root Surface Area (RSA), pH, Ni-DTPA, C and N soil contents and soil porosity were estimated using a 2 cm2 sampling grid (6 x 13 units). Co showed higher RSA in comparison to Ro and FMo. Legumes introduction (i.e. Co and Ro) increased plant biomass, Ni-yields and soil pH in comparison to FMo. Moreover, Co and Ro showed lower soil Ni concentrations in comparison to other treatments. No spatial distribution was detected for C and N soil content except for N in the case of FMo. Based on Mantel tests, significant positive correlations were found between almost all spatial maps created for Co, Ro and FMo. Co-cropping of Alyssum murale with a legume improved soil physical characteristics and enhanced Ni phytoextraction and plant biomass. The use of legumes in Ni-agromining systems could be an innovative strategy to reduce chemical inputs and to restore soil agricultural functions.

Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CR-KP) are increasingly being associated with serious nosocomial infections. Recently, CR-KP has been singled out as an urgent threat to human health. This study aimed at the molecular characterization of 34 CR-KP strains isolated from Lebanon. PCR-based replicon typing (PBRT) was performed to detect the plasmid incompatibility groups. Virulence was assessed by sequencing the wzi capsular gene. The genetic relationship among the isolates was determined by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). All isolates were resistant to at least one carbapenem antibiotic, with 67% of the isolates being resistant to ertapenem and 64% to imipenem. Six carbapenemase encoding genes, blaIMP, blaVIM, blaKPC, blaNDM-1, blaOXA-48 and blaOXA-181, were screened by PCR. 97% of the isolates were found to carry an IncL plasmid known for harboring the blaOXA-48 gene and linked to its dissemination into other species. IncFIIK and IncR, the most common replicons found in Klebsiella, were detected in 91% and 32% of the isolates, respectively. Eleven different K- types were identified by wzi typing with K15/17/50/51/52 being the most prevalent found in 11% of the isolates. The strains belonged to 19 different STs, with ST15 being the most common. Additionally, 29 different pulsotypes were detected using PFGE, with four pairs of isolates showing the same paattern. The genetic diversity K. penumoniae and presence of multiple carbapenemase resistance determinants located on mobile genetic elements make CR-KP infections a major burden in Lebanese hospitals. Multi-drug resistant ingections caused by CR-KP represent a growing problem and a serious global threat. These bacteria could potentially act as resistance reservoir, typing techniques are critical in understanding the dynamics of dissemination, resistance and prevalence of highly common infectious types. Understanding the genomics and resistance patterns of CR-KP will assist in developing better diagnostics and therapeutic approaches and minimize the dissemination of resistance pathogen.

The emergence of carbapenem resistance among Escherichia coli is a major clinical concern, as these agents are the last effective therapy available for patients with serious infections. In this study, we characterized the genomic attributes of an oxacillinase-48 (OXA-48) producing E. coli ECGM-IMP53. The genome was sequenced and screened for resistance genes, mobile genetic elements and virulence factors. Whole genome initial assembly produced 146 contigs with a combined 5,504,170 bp in size, and a G+C content of 50.5%. Resistance genes were screened through PCR and PCR-based replicon typing (PBRT) was used to identify plasmid incompatibility groups. Comprehensive genomic analysis of E. coli ECGM-IMP53 showed that it belonged to sequence type ST-405 and harbored several resistance determinants including the B-lactam resistance genes blaCTX-M-3, blaCTX-M-133, blaTEM-1, blaAmpC and blaCMY-70, aminoglycoside resistance genes fyuA, aac(3)IIa, and kdpE and fluoroquinolone resistance genes gyrA, parC and mfd. Plasmids IncI1-, IncL, IncW, IncFII and IncFIA were also detected in silico and confirmed using PBRT, with the plasmid IncL widely known to be linked with the spread of blaOXA-48. To our knowledge this is the first in-depth genomic analysis of an OXA-48 producing E. coli strain ST-405 in Lebanon linked to a blood stream infection. Continuous monitoring of the spread of carbapenem resistant strains is necessary as carbapenem resistant isolates pose a major threat to public health with the potential to cause widespread resistance to carbapenems.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer diagnosed worldwide. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted therapies are the conventional approaches currently used for the treatment of CRC. The limitations of cisplatin-based chemotherapy have prompted intense interest among scientists to search for alternative metal-based anticancer medicines. Gold (III) complexes have been among the most widely investigated since they showed higher cytotoxicity than cisplatin and promising in vitro and in vivo anticancer activities in colon cancer through the inhibition of thioredoxin reductase (TrxR), DNA and protein binding, the triggering of antimitochondrial effects and the induction of apoptotic events, but their clinical usefulness has been limited by their poor stability under physiological conditions. A novel Gold(III) porphyrin complexes [Gold (III) Porphyrin-adamantane chloride (SN1) and Gold (III) Porphyrin mono-acetate chloride (SN2)] with improved aqueous stability were synthesized. They showed strong antiproliferative effects and IC50 values in the micromolar range in human colorectal HT-29 (COX-2 sufficient) and HCT116 (COX-2 deficient) cancer cells. The antiproliferative effects of SN1 and SN2 was determined by using the 3-(4,5-dimethyl-thiazol-2yl)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide method. The Cell Death Detection ELISA plus was used to detect quantitative in vitro of cytoplasmic histone-associated DNA fragments (mono- and oligonucleosomes) after induced cell death. Flow cytometry was used to detect apoptosis and monitor cell cycle. The expression of protein was evaluated by Western blot assay. Phospho-ERK/P38α ELISA Kit was used for the measurement of human, mouse and rat phospho-ERK1/2-phosphoP38α .SN1 and SN2 exhibited marked antiproliferative effects in vitro on human colon cancer cell lines, and IC50 values ranged from 3 to 13 µM. SN1 and SN2 induced cell cycle arrest and p21 up-regulation. The two compounds significantly induced apoptosis by phospho-p53, Bax overexpression, cleavage of caspase-3 and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase, and DNA fragmentation. Moreover SN1 and SN2 targets PI3K/Akt and MEK/ERK principal survival pathways as they induce an increase in COX-2 expression in HT-29 Cells as a resistance mechanism to cell death. The current results suggested that Gold (III) complexes may be a new potential therapeutic drug for colon cancer.

Descriptive Statement:Depression is twice as common in people with diabetes as in the general population. In this study we attempt to identify the metabolic consequences of signaling alteration in diabetes leading to structural and functional central and peripheral changes in the brain and the sciatic nerve, thus increasing the susceptibility to stress and depression.

Introduction:Epidemiological data showed that diabetic patients are at a higher risk of developing depression. However, the shared molecular and functional mechanisms between the two diseases remain unknown. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been shown to increase in both disorders but the sources and mechanisms by which ROS lead to peripheral and central nervous system injury need to be elucidated. This study aims to determine the role of NADPH-induced ROS in the onset of depression and diabetes. This project will evaluate the effect of depression, on the alteration of the NADPH oxidases pathway and its effect on the onset and development of diabetic neuropathy using functional, behavioral, structural, and molecular testing.

Methods:A chronic stress procedure was used to induce depression in the control or non-obese type 2 diabetic mice. Behavioral tests were performed to assess depression and behavioral malfunction in diabetic and depressed animals. RT-PCR allowed the measurement of mRNA levels of Nox1, Nox4, PLP, and MBP. Western blots were used to assess the protein expression levels of Nox1 and myelin proteins. NADPH oxidase activity was used to measure the NADPH-dependent superoxide anion generation.

Results:Behavioral assessment shows a depressed like behavior in the diabetic animals resembling that of the depressed animals. Interestingly, the diabetic depressed mice showed an increase in the severity of depression, NADPH-dependent superoxide production, as well as a dysregulation in the myelin of the central and peripheral nervous system. Treatment with GKT, a specific Nox1 and Nox4 inhibitor, decreased ROS production, restored the expression of myelin protein in the nervous system, and reversed significantly, the depressive-like behavior as well as sensorimotor dysfunction.

Conclusion: NADPH oxidases-induced ROS production might be a major player in the central and peripheral myelin injury inducing a depressive-like behavior in diabetes and causing an alteration in the sensorimotor function.

Cancer is a group of genetic diseases characterized by a limitless replication potential and reprogramming of genetic information. Negative mutations in tumor suppressor genes and positive mutations in protooncogenes create an oncogenic stress. This stress is associated with genomic instability triggering DNA breakages that seem to colocalize with preferential genomic DNA sequences prone to breakage called fragile sites (FS). FS are site-specific loci of the mammalian genome that appear as breaks, gaps or decondensation on metaphase chromosomes of lymphocytes cultured under DNA replication- partial inhibition conditions. They are classified as rare fragile (RFS) or common sites (CFS) according to their population frequency and type of inducing agents. CFS are seen in all individuals and are mostly induced by aphidicolin (APH), a partial inhibitor of DNA polymerases α, δ and ε. Several studies analyzed the difference in the expression frequency of CFS at the cytogenetic level but no molecular studies were performed. The aim of this project is to determine if there is an inter-individual genetic variability in the expression frequency of the CFS FRA16D, the second most expressed CFS in the human population, in normal individuals at the molecular level using Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization (FISH) technique. Lymphocytes were taken from healthy volunteers using venipuncture, cultured for four days and then treated with 0.2 μg/ml of APH to induce breakages on metaphase chromosomes and specifically at FRA16D. Bacterial Artificial Chromosome (BAC) clones were used as specific probes for our hotspot of breakage within FRA16D in FISH experiments. BAC clones were verified by PCR, extracted, digoxigenin labeled, purified and hybridized on APH-treated lymphocytes. One hundred metaphases with positive signals were analyzed for each donor and were classified with or without break at FRA16D and the percentage of breakage was determined in all donors. The determination of the presence of an inter-individual variability in the expression of FRA16D is primordial to understand why different individuals under the same environmental stress conditions have variable cancer susceptibility.

Influenza A virus (IAV) is one of the most common causative agents of acute respiratory tract infections worldwide. It causes significant morbidity and mortality during its seasonal outbreaks and can occasionally cause pandemics. Since current influenza antiviral drugs target viral proteins, which can quickly evolve resistance to existing drugs, targeting host cell factors during infection is a promising antiviral approach as they are less prone for mutation, and thus the selection of resistance. Numerous studies have demonstrated the role of sphingolipids in various aspects of the life cycles of several viruses including attachment and fusion, intracellular transport, replication, and budding. Previous studies conducted in our laboratory have shown that IAV infection leads to increase in intracellular ceramide and apoptosis. Knowing that neutral sphingomyelinase (nSMase) is a key player in stress-induced production of ceramide by hydrolyzing the membrane lipid sphingomyelin, we hypothesize that it could play a role during IAV infection. In this study, we aim to investigate the role of nSMase during IAV infection in human lung adenocarcinoma epithelial cells. We assessed IAV replication upon inhibition of nSMase by GW4869 in A549 adenocarcinomic human alveolar epithelial cells. The cytotoxicity of GW4869 on A549 cells was measured using MTT assay. Viral titers were determined using plaque assay. Further, we assayed the activity of nSMase in IAV-infected lung epithelial cells at different time points using Amplex® Red Sphingomylinase assay kit. Pharmacological inhibition of nSMase using 20μM of GW4869 reduced virus titer in human lung epithelial cells by 2 log10 PFU/ml compared to mock-treated cells (p-value 0.01). On the other hand, nSMase activity was not altered in response to IAV infection. This study for the first time reveals an important role of nSMase during IAV infection, which provides new avenues for antiviral drug development.

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), an obligate eukaryotic intracellular protozoan parasite, is the causative agent of toxoplasmosis. In immunocompetent individuals, T. gondii infection in is asymptomatic; however, some patients may present with flu-like symptoms and sometimes lymphadenophathy. Contrarily, in immunocompromised patients, the infection may be life threatening. Another spectrum of the disease is congenial toxoplasmosis, which may lead to abortion, or severe fetal outcomes including mental retardation, hydrocephaly, microcephaly, chorioretinitis and impaired vision in newborn infants. Influenza A virus (IAV) is a major cause of acute respiratory tract infections in humans, which occasionally cause pandemics. Severe influenza infections are characterized by complications like pneumonia, encephalitis, and secondary bacterial pneumonia. Infection with T. gondii has been shown to modulate the outcomes of disease in the context of infection with other pathogens like Helicobacter felis, Trichenalla spiralis, and Mycobacterium avium. However, no studies investigated the disease outcome and underlying immunologic mechanisms of IAV infection in the context of acute toxoplasmosis. Therefore, the aim of this study is to characterize the effect of co-infections with these two pathogens in mice. We used 6-8 weeks female Balb-c mice were intraperitoneally infected with 250 tachyzoites of type II T. gondii followed by the intranasal inoculation with IAV or vice versa. Mouse survival and weight change were monitored over the course of three weeks and acute toxoplasmosis was verified by western blot. Real time PCR was used to investigate the outcomes of the infections on the brain cysts formation using BAG-1 primers, which are specific for T. gondii bradyzoite stages responsible for the chronic phase of the infection. Survival experiments for IAV subsequent to T. gondii infection revealed increased levels of mortality relative to influenza control mice. On the other hand, mice with T. gondii subsequent to IAV infection showed decreased mortality. Quantitative real-time PCR for BAG-1 expression revealed decreased transcript levels in co-infected groups relative to mice mono-infected with T. gondii, implicating that the co-infection restricts the progression of T. gondii to the chronic phase. Experiments to address the outcome of either pathogen infection on the other during the acute phase of the infection are pending. These will address the viral and parasitic loads in mice tissues at 3 and 5 days post-infection. Moreover, pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines including interferon-gamma, TNF alpha, IL-12, IL-10, and MCP in the context of co-infection, during both the acute and chronic phases of toxoplasmosis will be investigated Conclusion: Results implicate an aggravating effect induced in the event of influenza subsequent to T. gondii infection. Transcript levels for pro and anti- inflammatory cytokines will provide insight into the mechanisms that govern disease outcome.

Each year the Lebanese labor face problems in apple commercialization, production and disease control. The main causes are the excess treatment with fungicide and bactericide which result first, in high residues of these chemicals that surpass the international norms affecting the apple exportation; second, in the increase of pathogen resistance to fungicide and bactericide which leads to more diseases affecting apple production. Among apple pathogens, the most common at preharvest level are the fungus Venturia inaequalis and the bacteria Erwinia amylovora and at postharvest level the blue mold (Penicillium expansum) and the gray mold (Botrytis cinerea). In order to find a new biocontrol agent against apple diseases, we are investigating in the microbial community living on Malus trilobata, the wild apple tree found along the western slope of the mount Lebanon range, West and South Anatolia, Syria, north Israel, southeastern Bulgaria and the east section of Greek Thrace. Contrary to Malus domestica, the microbial diversity of Malus trilobata has never been tested before for its antifungal and antibacterial activities. Thus, we chose two sites for leaves, soil and roots sampling associated to Malus trilobata: Ehden reserve and Dhour choueir. Using different culture media, we isolated 429 strains at different time scale. A series of antagonistic activity were conducted and our results showed till now that among 53 strains tested: 84 % can inhibit Venturia inaequalis with a range of activity going from 50 to 100 %, 51 % of strains can inhibit Penicillium expansum from a 50 to 86 % range and finally 19 % can inhibit the growth of Botrytis cinerea from 50 to 97 %. Our primary data are promising and the antagonistic tests are still ongoing in order to select the most potential microorganisms for deeper biochemical analysis. Our main goal remains to achieve an efficient alternative treatment for the Lebanese apples.

Abnormalities in the epigenetic landscape, no less important than the genetic alterations, play a crucial role in cellular malignant transformation and cancer progression. Epigenetic drugs act by re-activating a large panel of genes involved in cell cycle arrest, regulation of differentiation and cell death. Their clinical application is promising because of their reported low toxicity to normal cells and specific biological effect on a large number of cellular processes. DNA methylation and histone acetylation are two dynamically linked epigenetic mechanisms aberrantly modified in several cancer types. The elevated expression of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) and the simultaneous hypermethylation of CpG rich islands within the promoter region of certain tumor suppressor genes are strategic features of the malignant phenotype, leading to differential gene expression. On the other hand, acetylation and deacetylation of histone lysine tails as catalyzed by histone acetyl transferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs) respectively modify the chromatin configuration and hence affect the access of the transcriptional machinery to corresponding genes. In cancer cells, the imbalance between HATs and HDACs favors a heterochromatin background and a transcriptional silencing of tumor suppressor genes. Considerable data revealed frequent epigenetic modifications in human colorectal cancer (CC) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) associated with both the initiation and progression of malignancy. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of two epigenetic modifiers: suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA); a histone deacetylase inhibitor and 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine/decitabine (DAC); a hypomethylating agent, either alone or when combined on cellular proliferation, apoptosis and cell cycle of AML and CC cells in vitro. Human colorectal adenocarcinoma (Caco-2) cell line and human acute myeloid leukemia (KG-1 and U937) cell lines obtained from ATCC were employed in this study. The cell lines were respectively cultured in DMEM and RMPI-1640 culture media supplemented with 10% FBS and 100 U penicillin/streptomycin at 37˚C and 5% CO2 in a humidified atmosphere. Cell proliferation was assessed using WST1 and XTT cell proliferation assays. Annexin V/PI double staining technique was used for the detection of apoptosis using flow cytometry. Cell cycle analyses were performed using flow cytometry following cell staining with propidium iodide. Our results show that the incubation of cell lines of both cancer types with increasing concentrations of SAHA or DAC significantly attenuates cellular proliferation and induces apoptosis in dose and time dependent manners. Our findings also reveal that SAHA arrests KG1 and U937 leukemia cells in their S and G2/M phases of the cell cycle respectively. Whereas DAC induces a cell cycle arrest in the S phase for both leukemia cell lines. Both drugs induce as well a concomitant increase in sub-G0 population of dead cells. Our future work will focus on investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of these epigenetic drugs on proliferation and apoptosis of AML and CC cell lines.

Introduction Urtica dioica (UD), known as stinging nettle, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant. It has a variety of medicinal uses treating diabetes, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Both aqueous and alcoholic extracts were shown to possess various pharmacological activities as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, hepatoprotective and anti-cancerous. The main chemical constituents of Urtica dioica are flavonoids, tannins, volatile compounds, polysaccharides, isolectins, sterols, terpenes, vitamins (Vitamin B, C and K) and minerals (calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorous, …). Additional principal constituents present include essential amino acids, glucokinnins and a high content of chlorophyll. Many studies have reported the effect of UD root extract in promoting apoptotic effect on various types of cancer cells in vitro. One study reported a dose-dependent pro-apoptotic effect of the aqueous extract prepared from UD leaves in breast cancer cell line MCF-7. However, no studies have investigated the effect of UD leaves aqueous extracts on acute myeloid leukemia (AML). AML is the cancer of the myeloid lines of blood cells. It is characterized by overproliferation and accumulation of abnormal myeloid progenitor cells in the bone marrow leading to a reduced ability to produce normal cells. It is considered the deadliest form of leukemia affecting mostly males. The incidence of this disease increases with age where older patients have worse treatment outcomes than younger ones. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of aqueous UD leaf extract on the proliferation of AML cells U937. Materials and Methods Cell Culture: AML U937 cells were purchased from American Type Culture Collection. The cells were maintained in Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum and 100 units of penicillin and streptomycin in a humidified incubator at 37°C and 5% CO2. Extract preparation: UD leaves were washed and placed in boiling water for 30 minutes. The aqueous extract (20% w/v) was filtered and centrifuged. The supernatant was stored at -20°C for later use. Cell Proliferation: Cells were plated in 96-well plates at a density of 1 x 106 cells/mL for 24 hours. UD aqueous extract was added to the cells in concentrations varying between 2 and 12% (v/v). RPMI alone was added to the control cells. After 24, 48 and 72 hour treatments, WST-1 (Roche) reagent was used according to the manufacturer's instructions to detect cell proliferation. Cell proliferation was assessed by recording the absorbance at a wavelength of 450 nm, which reflects the amount of formazan dye produced by metabolically active cells.Cell Cycle Analysis: Cells were seeded in 6-well plates at a density of 0.5 x 106 cells/ml. After incubation for 48 and 72 hours with the extract, the cells were fixed with ethanol, followed by propidium iodide staining. Cell DNA content was assessed by flow cytometry using C6 flow software. Apoptosis Detection: Cells were plated in 6-well plates at a density of 0.5 x 106 cells/ml and incubated with the extract for 48 and 72 hours. Annexin V/PI staining was performed, following the manufacturer's instructions (Abcam). Apoptosis was detected and analyzed using flow cytometry. Western blot: Cells were plated in cell culture dishes at a density of 5x105 cells/ml, then incubated with the extract for 48hrs. Cells lysates were separated on 12% SDS-PAGE. Proteins were transferred from gel onto PVDF membranes using BioRad electro transfer setup and antibodies against actin (house-keeping gene), Bax, BCl-2 and procaspase-3 were used. Results Our results show that UD aqueous leaf extract exerts a dose- and time-dependent antiproliferative effect on U937 cells. A decrease in proliferation was observed at high concentrations of the extract after 48 hours, and the effect of the extract was more pronounced after 72 hours of incubation. The aqueous extract induced 50% cell death at 24µg/µl and at 16μg/μl after 48 and 72 hours of incubation respectively. To determine whether the decrease in proliferation was due to necrosis or apoptosis, flow cytometry was performed to identify the DNA content of cells and the distribution of cells among the various stages of the cell cycle upon treatment with UD extract. Results obtained show that the UD extract, at IC50, caused an increase in the percentage of cells in the pre-G0 phase, reaching 25% and 40 % after 48 and 72 hours respectively. This is indicative of apoptosis, which was further confirmed by annexinV/PI staining which showed a significant increase of cells in early apoptosis after 48 hours. The number of cells in early and late apoptosis reached about 60% after 72 hours of treating the cells with UD extract. Furthermore, Urtica dioica extract significantly increased the expression of Bax with concomitant decrease in BCl-2 expression. The expression of procaspase-3 also decreased indicating its activation by cleavage to be involved in apoptotic pathway. Conclusion This study proves the dose- and time-dependent pro-apoptotic effect of UD aqueous leaf extract in acute myeloid leukemia cells in vitro. Further investigations are needed to understand the underlying mechanism and to identify the active compound of UD that are exerting this effect.

The advancement in embedded system provides a space to design and develop a sign language translator system to assist the dumb people. This paper mainly addresses to facilitate dumb person's lifestyle. To overcome these real time issues, this system is developed. We also can use this project to use it in recovery rooms in the hospitals and send data Wi-Fi to the control room to make the patient's needs easy. This proposed model consist of three modules, they are sensing unit, processing unit, voice. It is achieved by integrating flux sensor with Arduino. This method is more precise on hand movement and different languages can be installed in the controller

Nowadays, the reading and interpretation of antibiogram tests is a frequently performed task by doctors, researchers and technicians at hospitals and laboratories. An antibiogram is a test of the sensitivity of a microorganism to given antibiotics. Two classical techniques are used to determine the sensitivity of microorganisms to antibiotics, the dilution method and the diffusion method. Reading an interpretation of the results of these two methods are usually performed manually, which leads to human errors and a great waste of time. There are few automated devices that reads and interprets antibiograms but they are expensive and costly to run. The aim of this work is to upgrade a prototype, previously developed at the Doctoral School of The Lebanese University in Tripoli, that reads and interprets antibiograms performed by the diffusion method. We propose an improvement the mechanism of the prototype and an optimization of the algorithm of detection and interpretation using the recent image processing techniques. The two principle techniques used for circles detection are the Circular Hough Transform (CHT) and the Pixel Value Checking.

Patients undergoing certain surgeries such as open heart surgery or abdominal surgery and/or people, who heavily smoke, suffer from certain pulmonary complications such as pulmonary edema. In such situation patient's body struggles to get enough oxygen. And on the other hand the normal results of spirometric air volumes get disturbed. Old techniques for incentive spirometer do not use memory/data base in order to know whether a patient has made his breath exercises or not, how much time spent on exercise nor spirometric important data. The purpose of this work is to design and implement a digital incentive spirometer that will aid medical related stuff to assess the situation of a pulmonary edema patient by monitoring the spirometric data with the help of built in data base. The device presents the data as a log file for the case related physician.

When performing dialysis, patients must lay down on a classical dialysis chair that does not include helpful devices aiding in monitoring vital signs for these patients. Consequently urgent changes on the medical situation of a patient require bringing necessary medical equipment to assess the patient's case. Delay in time to take some of the vital signs for a patient can worsen the situation and can also lead to a shock or even myocardial infarction during a dialysis treatment session. This project aims to build an advanced dialysis chair that will provide required information needed in this section of the hospital. This chair allows providing information about patient's weight and blood pressure, two vital signs that are highly crucial during a dialysis session. A digital scale is used to detect variation of patient's weight and a built in noninvasive electronic blood pressure machine is used to simultaneously monitor patient's blood pressure during treatment session. Furthermore, derived information from these two devices installed on the chair (Smart dialysis chair) is transferred to a central monitoring station through a data cable.

The work presented in this project proposes to study the muscle fatigue of biceps by means of non-linear analysis methods that estimate the synchronization strength between time series. Till now, the treatment and the methods used in the analysis of muscle fatigue are limited to frequency and temporal analysis such as median frequency (MDF), average instantaneous frequency (AIF), and mean frequency (MNF). A new hypothesis states that "the increase of muscle fatigue leads to a change in the synchronization and the coupling between the EMG signals". For this reason, this work focuses on the study of coupling and connectivity between EMG signals with the help of recent signal processing methods that study the synchronization between the signals as the non-linear correlation coefficient (h2), transfer entropy (TE) and many other nonlinear methods. Our goal will ultimately make a monitoring of fatigue through these methods to validate or invalidate the hypothesis. Signals are collected using a matrix of 64 electrodes (64 channels, HD-sEMG) placed on the biceps to measure electric activity of the muscle.

The aim of this work is to monitor the electromyography signals (EMG) of the uterus during pregnancy terms using non-linear methods. The work helps to understand what happens to the uterus when going from pregnancy toward labor, which can lead to a physiological interpretation of the cause of term and preterm labors. Recently, much attention has been paid to the use of nonlinear analysis techniques for the characterization of biological signals. After collecting data on several pregnant women we chose the most known non-linear methods that may differs with the pregnancy progress till reaching labor to be applied in this study. These extracted indicators can be integrated to other indicator in a diagnosis system that can be clinically useful for pregnancy monitoring and preterm labor prediction.

Over the past decade, many laboratories have begun to explore brain-computer interface (BCI) technology as a radically new communication option for individuals with neuromuscular impairments that prevent them from using conventional augmentative communication methods. The aim of this work is to make a basic design and operation of a BCI system to help people who cannot make any body movement. Our idea is to use our healthy brain's signals recorded using electroencephalogram (EEG) in order to be able to control the room lights, door, and window. We have succeeded developing a complete solution, which will be helpful for lots of people, especially totally disabled people who can't move or talk. Specifically, we used the Steady State Visual Evoked Potentials (SSVEP) brain response induced by visual stimulus to detect where the subject is exactly looking, and then we send the correspondent request to an Arduino Uno and the latter controls the home devices.

Existing passive cooling solutions limit the short-term thermal output of systems, thereby either limiting instantaneous performance or requiring active cooling solutions. As the temperature of the electronic devices increases, their failure rate increases. That's why electrical devices should be cooled. Conventional electronic cooling systems usually consist of a metal heat sink coupled to a fan. This paper compares the heat distribution on a heat sink relative to different heat fluxes produced by electronic chips. The benefit of adding a fan is also investigated when high levels of heat generation are expected. In the present work, thermal management of the chip's temperature is performed using an aluminum heat sink, that can dissipate the heat generated by the chip and release it to the surrounding.

Grippers are widely used in industry as well as in medicine. Of course the best gripper is the human hand. However mimiking one finger of the human hand needs more than ten actuators and sensors. That leads to a hard and slow control even with the most recent CPU. One of the most important criteria of a gripper is its dexterity, which can be obtained also by under-actuation. A gripper is said to be under-actuated when it is doted of actuators less than its degrees of freedom. Under-actuated fingers presented in the literature are based on linkage, gearing system or pulley-tendon systems. Under-actuation increases the dexterity however it leads to a weak stability and grasping force distribution. In this work we present optimized under-actuated finger based on a linkage system. Linkage systems are usually used were high grasping forces are needed. However such system leads to a large difference in contact forces. This effect leads to the deterioration of the grasped object. In this work, we optimized the lengths of the links. The objective is to get a grasping as isotropic as possible, i.e. the grasping forces are proportional to the lengths of phalanxes. We set up the preliminary design and the objective function. Since we have a complicated mathematical model with seven variables we have to use numeric optimization algorithm. We used a Fletcher-Reeves strategy to optimize our variables since we have a great number of variables. Once the optimization done, we test our results and the result we calculate the internal forces in the finger in order to validate our design.

The main problem of using the concentrating energy approach is the elevated operating temperature associated with high energy flux. High temperature can result in the degradation of any device (solar, electrical, electronics, etc.), For example, in the case of a silicon Photovoltaic (PV) system, approximately 25% of the incoming concentrated solar energy will be converted into electrical energy and the remaining is converted into waste heat which contributes to elevate the cell temperature. The energy conversion efficiency for silicon based PV cells will decrease with cell temperature, at the approximate rate of 0.4-0.5% per. The main objective of this research is to emphasize the Phase Change Material (PCM) cooling technique. This kind of material is known for its high storing capacity of the temperature which will enhance the cycle life time of any device. In this paper, different types of PCM are tested on a PV panel in order to conclude about their physical properties, capacity of absorption, and to maintain the cell temperature within the operational working range.

Energy depletion, high cost of energy, and strict laws related to energy issued by governments are the direct causes that forced scientists and researchers to seek for a new source of energy and to reduce energy consumption. It was found that optimizing the usage of the available energy would increase the efficiency of the system and reduce environmental issues. Energy recovery is the main solution to maximize the usage of energy. Heat recovery from exhaust gases is an attractive field of study due to the high amount of energy rejected through exhaust gases. This paper is concerned in a suggested domestic cogeneration thermoelectric system. The system is made in order to use thermal energy hold by exhaust gases to heat domestic hot water and generate electricity using thermoelectric generators. Optimization analysis were performed in which the effect of changing the location of the thermoelectric generators was studied.

Due to the great tendency to increase the cost of fossil fuel in these days and concerning its cost and availability in the coming future, utilization of solar energy [1] will definitely increase and become more favorable. Solar dryer is one of the most important applications of solar energy. Drying is the process of removing moisture by evaporating liquid from a solid. It is utilized for agricultural and industrial products, reducing bacterial growth and preserving agricultural products. Solar dryers can be categorized into several types depending on different criteria. A short review on solar dryer will be presented in this paper aiming to help users to find optimal system.

Many technologies have been developed to take advantage of geothermal energy. Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth as heat, and could be extracted from the ground near to the Earth's surface that maintains a relatively constant temperature. There are many applications of geothermal energy such as production of electricity using the hot water and steam from ground reservoirs or by using the heat directly from the ground to provide heating and cooling for the buildings [1]. A geothermal heat pump [2] or ground source heat pump system (GSHP) is a central heating and cooling system that transfers heat to or from the ground. It uses the Earth as a heat source (in winter) or heat sink (in summer) [3]. This paper deals with parametric analysis to estimate the pipe's length for vertical closed loop systems where a software was utilized. The study included single borehole in cooling application and multiple boreholes in heating application.

Enhancing the quality of life has been a great concern to humans. There are several mechanical works that have been receiving special attention from research communities and industries alike. Energy in all of its forms, is the beating heart for any industrial and residential applications. Researchers are willing to find new sources of energy and maximize the usage of the available energy. Almost about one third of the energy supplied to a system is being dissipated to the environment. Mainly energy is dissipated in the form of thermal, and carried by the exhaust gases and cooling water. Heat recovery is the reuse of the dissipated energy directly or indirectly. This paper deals with energy recovery of heat dissipated by exhaust gases. A hybrid heat recovery system is proposed in which thermal energy dissipated is being utilized to produce domestic hot water as a first stage, and generates electricity as a second heat recovery stage.

The increase in use of fossil fuel and their rapid depletion have awakened the whole world on the importance of renewable energy. Through photovoltaic panels (PV), solar energy has the advantage of being renewable and environment friendly. Photovoltaic panels generate output power when exposed to sun irradiation; however, this will lead to an increase in their temperature, which in turn leads to a low electron excitation; thus, its output power will decrease causing a decrease in its efficiency. PV panel temperature varies depending on the incoming solar radiation intensity (G), ambient temperatures, inclination of the PV panel, wind speed, mounting scheme of the panel, partial shading, dust accumulation, and faults conditions in the panels. In this paper four Photovoltaic (PV) panels are used to investigate the effect of using PCM and finned plate of aluminum, the first PV is treated with white petroleum jelly as PCM in a tank attached to the back side of the PV panel, the second panel is treated with PCM tank and a finned plate attached to the back side of the panel, the third panel is treated with finned plate that fixed to the back side of the panel, and the last one is the standard PV.

In cold climate, intense fuel consumption periods during winter, usually by using fossil fuels which causes 'global warming, climate change', and by purchasing the electricity at high prices. Thus, from environmental and economical points of view, it is necessary to shift the peak demand to the off-peak periods. Some countries implement price scales depending on the time period: peak periods (higher cost) or off-peak periods (lower cost). The goal is to store energy during off-peak periods and release it during peak periods. Most renewable energy comes either directly or indirectly from the sun. Sunlight, or solar energy, can be used directly for heating and lighting homes and other buildings. Consequently, renewable energy could be considered as an alternative electric source, which can supply electricity to an insulated house and under floor electric heating system. This kind of energy source is not available at night, for this reason, latent heat storage system on phase change materials (PCMs) has been widely used due to its high heat storage capacity as a kind of thermal battery storage, cheap price, and no toxicity. In this paper, we will study the effect of phase change material in electrical under floor heating system and the construction elements 'walls, ceilings and floors' for a prototype of an insulated house.

The present work aims to evaluate the "stress concentration ratio n. The investigation was carried out using model tests of stone column performed inside cylindrical container of 300 mm in diameter and 350 mm in height . Various backfill material modified by sand , lime and cement were used. The undrained shear strength of the soil prepared in the containers ranged from 5.5 kpa to 13.5 kpa . The results revealed that the values of stress concentration ratio n achieved by crush stone , crush stone +50% sand , crush stone +5% dry lime , crush stone +10% dry lime , crush stone +2.5% cement and crush stone +5% cement were 3.9 , 4 , 4 , 4.3 , 6.6 and 7.6 respectively .The value of stress concentration ratio n is increased with decreasing the shear strength of surrounding soil . All model tests showed that the value of stress concentration ratio n increased when the total stress was held constant with increase the time.

This extended abstract research discusses briefly the design and topology of the direct matrix converters. The space vector modulation technique is applied on the system and the results prove to comply with the existing power quality standards

This paper addresses the applicability of using PLC system, including effective industrial network and SCADA, to optimize Solar Systems. This system permits better monitoring, locating, and controlling of every PV solar related device to detect the faulted, cracked or malfunctioning panel. This technology, not only introduces monitoring and diagnostics, but also can be used to control output devices, like panel tracking. This system is capable to talk to several HMI that can be used as monitors or advanced SCADAs. In this paper, we discuss the implementation of intelligent terminal and we emphasize on the fact that the design process should consider simultaneously the algorithmic and electronic-architectural perspectives to achieve a smart green system with the minimum cost and lowest energy consumption that is self-powered by the solar system itself. Index Terms—SCADA, Solar Panels, Industrial Networking, HMI, Green Systems.

The paper reveals the main requirements for the design of a standalone solar and wind hybrid system for remote base stations. The system components along with the control system are analyzed and modeled in order to obtain an optimum design.

This paper presents a study of the phase noise in ring oscillator and illustrates how the phase noise degrades the performance of the oscillator. The effects of thermal noise in transistors on the quality of oscillation at high frequency in CMOS ring oscillator is investigated. Also, we simulate the phase noise caused by thermal noise and the power dissipation of both 3 stages single-ended and differential topologies using cadence with 130nm TSMC Technology.

Due to the size of services provided by pharmacists and since smartphone becomes an indispensable part of our life, we decided to create a new generation of management system that helps pharmacists by using their Android phones and simple tools as RFID reader. This management system can solve lots of pharmacists' problems as dealing with customers, buying expensive items, losing database after PC malfunction, dealing with suppliers, working on difficult-to-use software, managing small pharmacy and wasting time. Also, our management system offers new solutions as using RFID tag for non-barcoded medicines, having all data in packet, searching for alternative medicines and answering customers question anytime and in anyplace. To apply our idea and to achieve our aims, we start working by collecting information, researches, and interviews to know the problems that pharmacists are facing; to design a professional application that can be helpful.

Our system is a customized electronic attendance system that improves the mechanism of taking attendance in universities. Besides its well-designed webpage, the system has an android application, which improves its accessibility and makes it more user friendly. The project mainly consists of four parts divided between software and hardware. It depends on the RFID technology, where the user enters his unique ID and registers attendance according to the course's name, date, and time. The system on the other hand confirms the user's entry and grants validation. Once validated, the data is saved in a database on the server.

In this paper, we present an event driven tactile sensor. We review the structure and functionality of the sensor by highlighting the role of its constituents. In particular, we show and discuss the static and dynamic electrical experimental characterization of the sensor first stage from a fabricated AMS 0.18µm prototype.

Solar energy concepts are mainly implemented in water heating solar systems (flat collectors) and electricity production solar systems (concentrating solar energy systems and photovoltaic panels). Photovoltaic cells (PV) are used to convert sunlight energy into electricity by taking the advantage of radiant photons. The efficiency of a PV panel, defined as the ratio of the delivered electrical power to the incident sun irradiation rate, is highly dependent on temperature. For 1 °C increase in the temperature of a crystalline-silicon PV panel, the relative efficiency decrease can be of 0.45 %. At this point, finding ways for decreasing the temperature of a PV panel will increase the panel efficiency. In the literature, there are several passive and active techniques for removing heat. The most commonly used passive techniques are techniques relying on the buoyancy driven air flow in a duct or in an opening or air channel in building applications or techniques cooling the photovoltaic panel by a container of Phase Change Material PCM.

The present work concerns an experimental study of the effect of using pure and combined PCM on the thermal behavior and electrical performance of a PV panel.

Digital networks are essential communication mechanisms that are used to transmit any sort of information such as text, audio and image. Due to the rapid growth of the Internet, access to data sets has become much easier, providing a significant number of problems such as illegal distribution, authentication, duplication and malicious tampering of digital data. Authors and data providers are concerned about protecting their data or work, to be distributed in a network environment. Among many approaches of protection, digital watermarking is undoubtedly the one that has received the most attention and interest. Portable Document Format, a digital form for representing documents, was developed and specified by Adobe Systems Society. PDF is an advanced imaging model based on a structured binary file format, used for impression and network transmission. The explosive growth of the internet emphasizes the protection of those documents against unauthorized users. Watermarking system is entitled to its own specific requirements. Certain watermarks are clearly visible, while in other many applications the mark must be discreet. It is then necessary to be careful during the insertion of the watermark in the original work and it should be invariant and resist various attacks from non-authorized users. Digital watermarking studies have always been driven by the improvement of robustness. On the contrary, security received little attention in the watermarking community. The security level is then defined as the number of observations the attacker needs to successfully estimate the secret key. The bigger the information leakage is, the smaller the security level of the watermarking scheme will be. Notice that the goal of the pirate is to gain information about the secret key, in order to, later on, hack different pieces of content watermarked with the same key. The perfect algorithms for a watermarking system will prevent an unauthorized user to detect, read or remove the watermark from the original work. In our previous work, we have presented a secure blind digital watermarking scheme for Portable Document Format (PDF), which we have referred to as Secure Spread Transform Dither Modulation (Secure-STDM). The experimental results show that the Secure-STDM achieves the security against the estimation of the projection vector, tested using a blind source separation technique (BSS) called PCA, with a sufficient resistance against AWGN and Salt&Peper attack, while preserving sufficient transparency. Independent Component Analysis (ICA) is another statistical and computational technique of BSS for detecting hidden factors that underlies sets of random variables. ICA is an extension of PCA, and it is much more powerful technique, capable of finding the underlying factors when PCA fail completely. Our target is to prove the security constraint of the Secure-STDM watermarking scheme against such type of attack.

Les hétérocycles azotés sont très répandus dans la nature et ils sont souvent doués de diverses activités biologiques. Les imidazo[l,2-a]pyridines constituent une famille très importante de ce type d'hétérocycles; ils sont fréquemment présents comme motifs essentiels dans des composés bioactifs tels que le zolpidem (traitement de l'insomnie), l'alpidem (un anxiolytique). Ils présentent un grand intérêt dans la chimie médicinale grâce à leur large spectre d'activités biologiques: anti-virale, antimicrobienne, antitumorale, anti-inflammatoire, antiparasitaire, hypnotique, etc. D'autre part, l'incorporation du fluor dans les molécules organiques a été largement reconnue comme une stratégie générale dans la recherche pharmaceutique et le développement des médicaments. Il est bien connu que l'électronégativité, la taille et la lipophilie du fluor peuvent améliorer considérablement la stabilité métabolique et la biodisponibilité de certains composés bioactifs. Notre laboratoire s'intéresse depuis quelques années, à la synthèse des hétérocycles portant des chaînes latérales fluorées. Dans le cadre de ce travail, nous décrivons la synthèse des imidazopyridines, des imidazopyrimidines, et des imidazopyridazines portant des chaînes gem-difluorées. La stratégie envisagée pour ces synthèses consiste à réaliser un couplage oxydant avec les cétones α,β-insaturées-γ-difluorées. Ces dernières sont accessibles à partir des propargyles gem-difluorés dont la synthèse a été mise au point dans notre laboratoire.

Many natural fibers have been used for a long time in textile industry as cotton and flax [1]. Moreover, natural fibers are getting more importance in composites industry as a substitute for glass, carbon, or aramid fibers [2, 3]. However, they must be modified to overcome some disadvantages such as flammability. In the present work, flax fabrics were modified by phosphorous flame retardants (FR) through two grafting methods in order to improve their flame retardancy. For the chemical route, three bisphosphonic acids with different molecule lengths were used to treat flax fibers via a reaction between phosphonic acid and flax hydroxyl groups as proposed by Dorez et al. [4]. This reaction was achieved in soft conditions in order to avoid a significant change in flax composition [5]. However, grafting yield is found to be very low (< 0.5 wt% of phosphorus). Allylphosphonic acid (APA) combines a phosphonic acid function and a double bond C=C which also allows grafting by e-beam radiation as discussed by Sonnier et al. [6]. Grafting efficiency of this molecule using both routes was assessed by X-ray fluorescence through the quantification of the phosphorus element present in flax fibers. Also, scanning electron microscopy was used to localize the phosphorus element by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. In all cases, phosphorous flame retardants have diffused to the bulk, but the grafted amount was much different. Phosphorus content reached more than 1 wt% only by e-beam radiation method. Flame retardancy was evaluated by a simple unstandardized fire test. Self-extinguishing fabrics were only obtained by radiation grafting of APA. Unmodified flax leaves no residue after ignition. Char yield increases when phosphorus content increases. It reaches 34.3 wt% for flax modified by APA through radiation grafting. Radiation grafting appears to be more suitable to modify natural fibers with low lignin content.

[1] R. M. Kozasowski, M. Mackiewicz-Talarczyk, and A. M. Allam, Bast fibres: flax. Woodhead Publishing Limited, 2012. [2] M. Zimniewska and M. Wladyka-Przybylak, "Fibrous and Textile Materials for Composite Applications," S. Rana and R. Fangueiro, Eds. Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2016, pp. 171-204. [3] O. Faruk, A. K. Bledzki, H. Fink, and M. Sain, "Progress in Polymer Science Biocomposites reinforced with natural fibers : 2000 - 2010," Prog. Polym. Sci., vol. 37, no. 11, pp. 1552-1596, 2012. [4] G. Dorez, B. Otazaghine, a. Taguet, L. Ferry, and J. M. Lopez-Cuesta, "Use of Py-GC/MS and PCFC to characterize the surface modification of flax fibres," J. Anal. Appl. Pyrolysis, vol. 105, pp. 122-130, 2014. [5] A. Richarc Horrocks, S. ZHANG, "Enhacing polymer char formation by reaction with phosphorylated polyols. 1. Cellulose, " Polymer, vol. 42, pp. 8025-1596, 2001. [6] R. Sonnier, B. Otazaghine, A. Viretto, G. Apolinario, and P. Ienny, "Improving the flame retardancy of flax fabrics by radiation grafting of phosphorus compounds," Eur. Polym. J., vol. 68, pp. 313-325, 2015.

1. Introduction Les composes organiques volatils (COV) sont consideres comme un contributeur majeur a la pollution atmospherique causant des effets nefastes sur la sante ainsi que sur l environnement. De ce fait, plusieurs techniques ont ete developpees pour eliminer ces polluants. L oxydation catalytique est l une des methodes les plus prometteuses et les plus efficaces pour convertir les COV en sous-produits moins toxiques (eau et dioxyde de carbone). Cette approche présente une plus grande selectivite et necessite une temperature plus basse que d autres methodes, ce qui implique un cout plus faible et une economie considerable d energie. Deux groupes de materiaux catalytiques sont habituellement utilises pour l oxydation complete des COV, (1) les métaux nobles et (2) les métaux de transition. Les catalyseurs de metaux nobles sont caracterises par une bonne stabilite et une activite elevee, mais leurs quantites limitees et leur prix eleve ont oblige les chercheurs a se focaliser sur l utilisation des metaux de transition qui sont moins onereux et plus disponibles. Par consequent, les oxydes des metaux de transition ont ete etudies de maniere intensive au cours des dernieres annees et en particulier le cobalt et le fer qui ont deja fait leurs preuves en oxydation des COV [1-2]. Afin d ameliorer les performances catalytiques des metaux de transition, la dispersion de l espece metallique doit etre optimisee en utilisant une methode de synthese adequate. Dans cette optique, nous avons focalise notre travail sur la preparation d une serie d oxydes mixtes Co-Mg/Al-Fe par voie hydrotalcite. En fait, les composes de type hydrotalcite mènent a la formation, apres traitement thermique, d oxydes mixtes et de spinelles ayant des propriétés interessantes en catalyse telles qu une aire specifique elevee, le non-respect de la stœchiometrie, une bonne homogeneite et une bonne dispersion de la phase active. Les echantillons ont ete caracterises par des techniques differentes physico-chimiques, notamment la porosimétrie, la diffraction de rayons X (DRX), l analyse thermique differentielle et gravimétrique (ATD-ATG) et la spectroscopie infrarouge a transformee de Fourier (IR-TF). Les solides ont ete egalement testes vis-a-vis de la reaction de l oxydation totale du propene.

2. Resultats Les diffractogrammes DRX avant calcination, confirment l obtention de la phase hydrotalcite désiree pour tous les solides seches. Par contre, d apres les analyses thermiques, la substitution du magnésium par le cobalt diminue la stabilite thermique de l hydrotalcite, puisque la decomposition dans ce cas s opere a des temperatures plus faibles. La substitution de l aluminium par le fer, conduit egalement a une diminution de la stabilite mais avec un effet plus faible que dans le cas du cobalt. Les hydrotalcites avant calcination possedent des aires specifiques comprises entre 60 et 100 m2.g-1. Une augmentation des valeurs est constatee, lorsque ces memes solides ont ete calcines a 500 C. Cette augmentation peut etre expliquee par le passage d une structure cristallisee de type hydrotalcite a une structure moins cristallisee de type oxyde mixte. Les diffractogrammes DRX de ces oxydes, ont montre que la cristallinité diminue avec la substitution du magnesium par le cobalt et l aluminium par les especes de fer respectivement. En outre, le catalyseur contenant a la fois du cobalt et du fer a presente une meilleure performance catalytique que les autres solides, comme la montre la figure ci-dessous.

Courbes de conversion du propene en fonction de la temperature de reaction

En effet, l echantillon Co4Fe2 est le catalyseur le plus actif vis-a-vis de l oxydation totale du propene. Ce resultat est du au fait que les oxydes de cobalt et de fer presentent une bonne synergie et des especes plus actives en surface.

References:

[1] E. Genty, R. Cousin, S. Capelle, C. Gennequin and S. Siffert, "Catalytic oxidation of toluene and CO over nanocatalysts derived from hydrotalcite-like compounds (X62+Al23+): Effect of the bivalent cation", Europ. J. Inorg. Chem., vol. 2012, pp. 2802-2811, 2012.

[2] E. Genty, J. Brunet, C. Poupin, S. Casale, S. Capelle, P. Massiani, S. Siffert and R. Cousin, "Co-Al Mixed Oxides Prepared via LDH Route Using Microwaves or Ultrasound: Application for Catalytic Toluene Total Oxidation", Catalysts, vol. 5, pp. 851-867, 2015.

Learning from natural, biological design has become one of the prevailing ideas in developing new generations of synthetic materials. In the strengthening and toughening exploration of structural composites, nacre now serves as a model system of tremendous interest. In nacre, the laminated assembly of alternating protein collagen layers and aragonite tablets contributes to remarkable mechanical properties superior to those achieved by man-made [1], [2]. Composite laminated materials have attracted more and more attention for several potential applications: structural components, electronic devices, aerospace sector. Typical laminated composites such as ceramic/ceramic, metal/ceramic, metal/metal and metal/ceramic/intermetallic systems have shown desirable properties. These systems can combine the superior ductility and toughness of the softer phase with the high strength and hardness of the harder phase, leading to an outstanding result of strength, toughness and ductility for multilayered composite materials [3]. Several processing techniques, such as adhesion bonding, chemical deposition, diffusion welding, hot accumulative rolling, and reactive sintering are used to fabricate these laminated systems [4]. Since 2010, a novel powder metallurgy strategy called flake PM, was developed to fabricate bulk metal/matrix composite materials with a laminated structure over large-scale dimensions. The idea of flake PM was based on using flake-shaped metal powders as composing units that can be ordered into well-aligned macroscopic assemblies even under common and time efficient processes, such as hot pressing and extrusion. Flake PM has been used for the fabrication of Al2O3/Al, carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/Al, CNTs/Cu, graphene/Al, and B4C/Al composite materials. Improvement of the Young's modulus, tensile strength, and toughness have been measured on these materials [5]-[7]. It is well known that titanium matrix composites (TMCs) exhibit high specific strength, specific stiffness, and high temperature durability. Therefore, it is a prevailing idea for TMCs to be potentially applied in aerospace, weapon and automobile. However, these applications are limited due to their low ductility. Meanwhile, the design of laminated structures is becoming an opportunity to develophigh fracture toughness TMCs. It was demonstrated that Ti layers can effectively improve ductility in TiB/Ti laminate composite materials, and to be primarily responsible for enhancing fracture toughness in Ti/Al3Ti laminate composite materials . The effective Young's module of Ti alloy-Ti/SiC laminated composite materials was found to be 1.2 to 1.8 times greater than pure titanium alloy. This composites were prepared using different techniques such as reactive hot pressing, diffusion welding and sintering followed by hot rolling process [8], [9]. The aims of our study, is the use of flakes powder metallurgy, for the fabrication of biomimetic nacre's laminated structures intitanium materials, using SPS as sintering technique. The first part of our research is focused on: - The elaboration of titanium flakes powder, from spherical powder by ball milling. - The evolution of the microstructure of titanium flakes during sintering and the optimization of sintering parameters to fabricatedense laminated titanium materials. - The variation of the densification, between initial powder and flakes powder of titanium during sintering, to prove the importance of flakes powder, in the preparation of laminar material with full density and anisotropic microstructure. -The characterization of the hardness properties of both laminated and non-laminated materials. The experimental approach includes two stages: 1) the preparation of titanium flakes by ball milling and 2) the densification of titanium flakes using SPS sintering technique. The morphology and the particle size of powders before and after ball milling were characterized using laser granulometry and scanning electron microscopy. The density of sintered material was characterized using the Archimedes immersion method whereas the microstructure and the crystallite size were examined using and X-Ray Diffraction. The hardness of the materials was measured by micro-indentation. The C and H contents, introduced during the ball milling step, were measured using CHNS elemental analysis. The outcomes of the current research are: - The wet ball milling of 25 μm spherical titanium powder, using stearic acid as process control agent, permits (i) the elaboration of Ti powder flakes with 2-D planar morphology, average diameter of 65 μm and thickness ranging from 6 to 8 μm and (ii) the reduction of the crystallite size associated with a pronounced texturing in the (002) plan. - A C and H contamination during ball milling due to the decomposition of the stearic acid. This contamination permits the strengthening (hardness) of the material after sintering. - The SPS sintering of titanium flakes, at 600°C during 10 min, permits the fabrication of laminar titanium full dense material, with an oriented microstructure in the (002) plan. Further, the increase of the temperature above 600°C, lead to the loss of this architecture due to grain growth. - The faster (and at lower temperature) densification observed with Ti flakes. This behavior may be linked with the increase of the crystal density after ball milling, which help the solid diffusion during sintering.

Introduction The increase in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere is considered to be one of the main causes of global warming. As a result, the methanation reaction CO2(g) + 4H2(g) CH4(g) + 2H2O (ΔH°298 = -165 kJ/mol), also known as Sabatier reaction, has received great interest as a process for the valorization of the greenhouse gas CO2 into methane which is a hydrogen-carrier gas [1]. The methanation of CO2 is an exothermic reaction favored at low temperature and high pressure. However, this reaction requires a high energy input to activate the very stable CO2 molecule, and exhibits serious kinetic limitations. Consequently, the development of active and stable catalysts is essential to overcome these difficulties. Catalytic methanation of CO2 has been studied using catalysts containing Rh [2], Pd [3], Ru [4], Co [5] and Ni [6] on various supports. The catalytic systems containing Rh were found to be the most active and selective ones [7]. In this work, catalysts containing a Rh loading of 1wt% on γ-Al2O3 support with various particle sizes were prepared and tested in the CO2 methanation reaction. Experimental The catalysts were prepared by wet impregnation method. 1g of the γ-Al2O3 support was impregnated with appropriate amounts of the precursor rhodium (III) acetylacetonate in order to obtain 1wt% loading of Rh. The resulting solution was then stirred overnight and evaporated at different temperatures to obtain different rhodium particle sizes. Afterwards, the obtained materials were dried overnight in an oven at 393K and calcined under dry air for 4h at 773K. The prepared solids were then reduced under a H2 flow of 60 mL/min for 4h at 773K. The obtained samples were then characterized by TEM and H2 chemisorption. Finally, their catalytic performances were evaluated in the CO2 methanation reaction, in the temperature range of 100-450°C, at atmospheric pressure, and by using a gaseous mixture of CO2 (10%) and H2 (40%) in N2 balanced at a total flow rate of 100 mL/min.

Results and discussion The various catalysts showed negligible CO2 conversion at temperatures lower than 250°C. The conversion of CO2 increases with increasing reaction temperature. Table 1 shows the influence of Rh particle size on the catalytic performance at 350⁰C. The conversion of CO2 increases as the particle size decreases to 1.3 nm and then decrease. The smallest Rh particles exhibit a better catalytic performance than the larger ones. This observation might be assigned to the higher amount of Rh surface atoms that are available for the reaction. The decrease of the CO2 conversion observed when the particle size of the Rh was 1.1 nm might be due to sintering effects. Table 1: Metal dispersion, particle size, CO2 conversion and CH4 selectivity at 350⁰C. Catalysts Metal dispersion % Particle size (nm) CO2 conversion% CH4 selectivity% Rh/ γ-Al2O3 41 2.2 31 100 Rh/ γ-Al2O3 50 1.8 83 100 Rh/ γ-Al2O3 70 1.3 96 100 Rh/ γ-Al2O3 83 1.1 88 100

Conclusion In this work, we investigate the effect of the rhodium particle size of the catalytic activity and selectivity in the methanation reaction. Small particles favor CO2 conversion. The optimal Rh particle size is determined at around 1.3 nm. References: [1] A. Karelovic and P. Ruiz, "Mechanistic study of low temperature CO2 methanation over Rh/TiO2 catalysts," J. Catal., vol. 301, pp. 141-153, 2013. [2] A. Erdohelyi, "Catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 over supported palladium," J. Catal., vol. 98, pp. 166-177, 1986. [3] G. Garbarino, D. Bellotti, E. Finocchio, L. Magistri, and G. Busca, "Methanation of carbon dioxide on Ru/Al2O3: Catalytic activity and infrared study," Catal. Today, vol. 277, pp. 21-28, 2016. [4] G. Zhou, T. Wu, H. Xie, and X. Zheng, "Effects of structure on the carbon dioxide methanation performance of Co-based catalysts," Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, vol. 38, no. 24, pp. 10012-10018, 2013 [5] M. Nizio, A. Albarazi, S. Cavadias, J. Amouroux, M. E. Galvez, and P. Da Costa, "Hybrid plasma-catalytic methanation of CO2 at low temperature over ceria zirconia supported Ni catalysts," Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, vol. 41, no. 27, pp. 11584-11592, 2016. [6] M. Jacquemin, A. Beuls, and P. Ruiz, "Catalytic production of methane from CO2 and H2 at low temperature: Insight on the reaction mechanism," Catal. Today, vol. 157, no. 1-4, pp. 462-466, 2010.

Rita KHALIL1,2, Ibrahim BOU MALHAM1, Mirella AZAR1, Mireille TURMINE2 1. Lebanese University, Platform of Research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Fanar, Lebanon 2. Sorbonne Universités, UPMC, Paris 06, CNRS, Laboratoire Interfaces et Systèmes Electrochimiques, 4, place Jussieu, 75005, Paris ritamkhalil@hotmail.com

In the past several years, ionic liquids have attracted a fast-growing research interest as innovating solvents. This growth is explained in particular by the need of developing respectful processes of the environment [1] . In electrochemistry, ionic liquids are more used since they have, especially sufficient electric conductivity and large electrochemical window. The majority of ionic liquids has a very high viscosity, which strongly influences one of the principle steps of electrochemical processes, matter transport by diffusion of soluble products. With the aim of using ionic liquids as electrolyte during the electrodeposition of nanostructured thin layers of zinc oxide (ZnO) [2, 3], electrochemical studies, in particular the cyclic voltammetry and the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), were realized for three hydrophobic ionic liquids. Relevant physicochemical properties were studied, such as viscosity, density and diffusion coefficient of ferrocemethanol (taken as redox probes)[4] in the three ionic liquids considered under various conditions. This work showed the effect of the length of the alkyl chain of the cation on the electrochemical behavior of ionic liquids. The objective of this study is to correlate the properties of the ionic liquids used with the nature of the films of zinc oxide obtained. This work comes within a thesis in collaboration between the Lebanese University and the UPMC that is: « Electrochemical deposition of ZnO in ionic liquids ».

1. Li, H., et al., Influence of alkyl chain length and anion species on ionic liquid structure at the graphite interface as a function of applied potential. J Phys Condens Matter, 2014. 26(28): p. 284115. 2. Azaceta, E., et al., Electrochemical reduction of O 2 in 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis (trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide ionic liquid containing Zn 2+ cations: deposition of non-polar oriented ZnO nanocrystalline films. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2011. 13(29): p. 13433-13440. 3. Azaceta, E., et al., Electrochemical deposition of ZnO in a room temperature ionic liquid: 1-Butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis (trifluoromethane sulfonyl) imide. Electrochemistry Communications, 2009. 11(11): p. 2184-2186. 4. Lovelock, K.R., et al., On the diffusion of ferrocenemethanol in room-temperature ionic liquids: an electrochemical study. Phys Chem Chem Phys, 2011. 13(21): p. 10155-64.

Slow group velocity of light in photonic crystals, multiple internal scattering in disordered domains, and the open void can be exploited to amplify light energy conversion in thin solar cells. In this study, light energy conversion in titania photonic crystals sensitized with Q-CdTe or Q-CdTe/CdSe, stability in the photoelectrochemical cell, and growth of type II Q-CdTe/CdSe were investigated in selenide electrolyte.

TiO2 inverse opals (i-TiO2-o) and unstructured nanocrystalline TiO2 (nc-TiO2) films were sensitized with quantum-confined CdTe (Q-CdTe) deposited via successive solvent casting followed by annealing under argon. We examined the photophysical and photoelectrochemical behaviors of Q-CdTe in three sizes, green-emitting dots of 2.3-2.7 nm diameter, yellow-emitting dots of 3 nm diameter, and red-emitting dots of 4 nm diameter. The binding of Se2− on the CdTe surface was size dependent, leading to type-II CdTe/CdSe core shell, with a binding constant that is 7- times greater for 2.3 nm Q-CdTe compared to 4 nm Q-CdTe, as determined from emission quenching data. The photoelectrochemical behavior of Q-CdTe sensitized films was studied in alkaline selenide electrolyte prepared under inert atmosphere. Significant gains in light energy conversion were observed at the sensitized inverse opal relative to nc-TiO2, attributed to light trapping in the photonic crystals.

In addition, photoelectrochmical and spectroscopic studies were conducted at Q-CdTe films modified by dipping in selenide followed by heating at 300˚C for 30 minutes, resulting in characteristics of type-II structures. A significant enhancement was measured with an incident photon-to-current-conversion-efficiency (%IPCE) reaching 24.8% ± 6.7% at 600 nm for 560-TiO2-o sensitized with green-emitting Q-CdTe after the treatment in selenide and annealing, and 6.35% ±3.2% at 600 nm for nc-TiO2 similarly sensitized. This enhancement corresponds to type-II Q-CdTe/CdSe core shell formation after dipping in selenide and increase in the structure crystallinity after heating. EDX spectra revealed incorporation of Se, and XRD patterns indicated zinc blende CdTe structure with an increase in crystallinity after dipping in selenide and annealing. Fluorescence spectroscopy showed quenching of the emission of the solid films which indicates the formation of the core shell structure.

Poly 4-vinylpyridine (p4VP) chains were built on Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate by metallic copper mediated radical polymerization CRP. Substrates were pretreated to graft a radical polymerization initiator. Several characterization techniques were used to study the modified surfaces, including Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). Our study showed a successful grafting of a stable, smooth and homogenous layer of p4VP.

A rapid, simplified and low cost strategy to chemically modify polymer substrates with covalently bonded layer of the pH responsive p4VP for different applications was therefore proven. This strategy will be used for other polymer systems for different applications where industrial scale viable options are needed.

The overall modification strategy is depicted below. It involves the successive aminolysis with PEI, grafting of an initiator and Cu(0)-SI-CRP of 4VP.

To ensure a successful modification after each step, films were characterized by means of different techniques starting with water contact angle (WCA) where surface wettability varied with pH, proving the presence of the pH sensitive p4VP.

P4VP's pyridine specific peak was detected in the FTIR-ATR spectrum at 1640 cm-1, and detailed XPS study showed the creation of new bonds after each modification step as planned with the proper atomic contributions.

In order to provide more chemical and dimensional specificity of the surface, high-resolution ToF-SIMS analysis was performed. Secondary ion Fragments from each layer were identified and the evolution of the characteristic secondary ion intensity of each layer was studied as a function of sputtering time (i.e. depth profile) on the final modified surface.

At the outer surface, p4VP is predominately present. As we go down the Z axis, p4VP signal intensity gradually decreases as both PEI and PET signals increase. At a certain depth, PEI signal reaches its maximum intensity then decreases along with p4VP, while PET signal continues its increase where only traces of p4VP and PEI are detected. This depth profile shows no clear interfaces between layers as no sudden shifts in signal intensities are detected. This reveals an important aspect of these surfaces. The absence of sharp interfaces reflects an interpenetrating "interphases" of successive layers. In fact, this aspect can be attributed to the use of the branched PEI that offers a dense network of amines that first allows multiple attachment sites between the PEI layer and the PET substrate, and on the other hand, offers a multi-initiating sites for the later polymerization of 4VP. As a result, PET substrate was indeed functionalized with a covalently attached, dense and uniform layer of p4VP, but initiated from different sites that are geometrically localized at various depths. Consequently, interphases are observed rather than sharp interfaces between the consecutive components.

AFM and SEM analysis showed no remarkable defects on the surface. PET surface were successfully modified with smooth, homogenous and covalently bonded p4VP layer.

La résolution des problèmes liés à la pollution de l'air est un défi majeur à l'heure actuelle, au Liban comme ailleurs. La difficulté réside dans la mise en place de solutions à la fois efficaces, peu coûteuses et inoffensives, vis-à-vis de l'environnement. Parmi les polluants atmosphériques figurent les composés organiques volatils (COV) qui de par leur grandes volatilité et toxicité peuvent entraîner des conséquences dangereuses sur la santé et l'environnement [1]. L'une des voies étudiées pour l'élimination des COV est l'oxydation catalytique. Cette méthode s'est avérée être très prometteuse, et avantageuse par rapport à l'oxydation thermique en termes d'économie d'énergie et de meilleure sélectivité envers les produits désirés (CO2 et H2O) [2]. Nous nous sommes intéressés dans ce travail à la possibilité de remplacer les catalyseurs à base de métaux nobles principalement utilisés pour ce type de réaction par des catalyseurs moins chers contenant du cuivre et du manganèse. En effet les oxydes de ces métaux de transition se sont avérés être actifs et sélectifs pour l'oxydation totale de COV [3-4]. Afin d'augmenter la dispersion de la phase active ces métaux seront supportés sur un support hydroxyapatite de formule Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2. L'hydroxyapatite est un matériau naturel, peu coûteux, stable chimiquement et thermiquement, et présentant des propriétés acido-basiques modulables grâce à la flexibilité de sa structure [5]. L'idée de base de ce travail est de disperser conjointement du Cu et du Mn sur une hydroxyapatite en vue de discuter d'un éventuel effet de synergie sur les performances catalytiques dans l'oxydation totale du toluène. Le toluène a été choisi car c'est un COV aromatique présent dans de nombreux rejets automobiles et industriels et présentant un Potentiel de Création d'Ozone Photochimique (PCOP) relativement élevé. Le support apatitique (Hap) a été synthétisé par la méthode à reflux en milieu basique à partir de Ca(NO3)2 et NH4H2PO4. Le précipité obtenu a été calciné à 400°C pendant 4h. La co-imprégnation de 10% pds de métal de transition (M = Cu, Mn) sur Hap a été réalisée en excès d'eau à partir de précurseurs nitrate. Après séchage le précipité a été calciné comme précédemment. Les solides obtenus sont désignés CuHap, MnHap et CuxMnyHap (x/y = 2 ; 1 ; 0,5). Ces catalyseurs ont été caractérisés par la diffraction des rayons X (DRX), sorption d'azote, réduction en température programmée sous hydrogène (H2-RTP) et spectroscopie de photoélectrons induits par rayons X (SPX). L'oxydation du toluène (800ppmv) dans l'air a été menée à une vitesse spatiale horaire du gaz (VSHG) de 30000mL/(g.h) en descente de température (0,5°C/min) à partir de 390°C sur des échantillons prétraités 2h sous air à 390°C. La Fig.1 représente le T50(CO2) (température à laquelle 50% du toluène est converti en CO2) en fonction de la teneur atomique en Mn. Il apparaît clairement que le catalyseur CuHap est moins actif que le catalyseur MnHap. De plus il est intéressant de remarquer que les valeurs des T50(CO2) relatives aux catalyseurs Cu-Mn sont inférieures aux valeurs attendues par un simple mélange mécanique des entités à base de Cu et Mn (définies sur la droite en trait plein). Nous observons donc un effet de synergie marqué lorsque l'on associe le Cu au Mn. De plus on ne détecte pas de CO sur le catalyseur Cu2MnHap qui apparaît être le plus performant. De meilleures performances pour les catalyseurs Cu-Mn s'expliquent par une bonne dispersion de la phase active (DRX ; sorption de N2) permettant une meilleure interaction entre le Cu et Mn à l'échelle atomique. De plus les expériences H2-RTP semblent montrer indirectement une meilleure réductibilité du Cu en Cu(0) permettant d'assister la réduction de NO3- résiduels (provenant de la synthèse) à de plus faibles températures. Dans ce travail, nous avons montré que les catalyseurs Cu-Mn sont plus performants que les catalyseurs monométalliques. Une bonne dispersion de la phase active alliée à une bonne réductibilité du catalyseur permet de rendre compte de tels résultats.

The generation of hydrogen from both the NdNiMg15 ternary compound and the 1Nd - 1Ni - 15Mg mixtures (using NdH2.6 or NdCl3 as Nd precursors in the mixtures) with molar ratio of 1:1:15 respectively by hydrolysis reaction were investigated. The Nd-Ni-Mg mixtures were prepared by ball milling process (for 1, 3 and 5h) and the hydrolysis reaction was carried out in a 3.5 wt. % NaCl solution (i.e. seawater). Independently of the composition, Nd-Ni-Mg mixtures show better hydrolysis performance compared with NdNiMg15 compound. The best hydrolysis performances were achieved with the mixtures 1NdH2.6 - 1Ni - 15Mg + 15 wt. % NaCl and 1NdCl3 - 1Ni - 15Mg mixtures milled for 3h. A 100% of theoretical hydrogen yield was obtained in 3 and 4 min respectively. The presence of chloride salts such as NaCl or NdCl3 during ball milling improves significantly the hydrolysis performance due to its ball milling and electrolyte properties.

Glycerol steam reforming over Ru-Mg-Al hydrotalcites: Role of the preparation method in catalytic activity

Eliane Dahdah1,2,3,4*, Jane Estephane3, Samer Aouad2, Cedric Gennequin1, Antoine Aboukaïs1, Bilal Nsouli4, Edmond Abi-Aad1 1 Unité de Chimie Environnementale et Interactions sur le Vivant (UCEIV) E.A. 4492, Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale, F-59140 Dunkerque, France 2 Department of Chemistry, University of Balamand, Tripoli, Lebanon 3 Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Balamand, Tripoli, Lebanon 4 Commission Libanaise de l'Energie Atomique, Conseil National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Beirut, Liban

*Email: eliane.dahdah@std.balamand.edu.lb

Introduction As a result of the ever-growing energy demand and production of biodiesel as a fuel, huge quantities of the by-product glycerol are being produced [1]. The production of hydrogen from these excess quantities of glycerol has been found to be a good and promising means of valorization, especially with the growing need to shift towards a hydrogen-based economy [2][3]. Hydrogen, a clean source of energy, is an important raw material for several industrial applications [4][5]. Glycerol Steam Reforming (GSR) is a complex, equilibrium limited process where 7 moles of hydrogen can theoretically be obtained from 1 mole of glycerol via the following reaction: C3H8O3 + 3 H2O ↔ 7 H2 + 3 CO2 ΔH298K = +128 kJ.mol-1 Hydrotalcite-like compounds are double layered hydroxides having the following general formula [M2+1-xM3+x(OH)2]x+(An-) x/n.mH2O where M2+ are divalent metal ions, M3+ are trivalent metal ions and An- are anions. After thermal treatment, hydrotalcites form mixed oxides that exhibit high surface areas, basic character and small crystallite sizes making them interesting candidates for many catalytic reactions [6]. The aim of this study is to prepare two Ru-Mg-Al hydrotalcite compounds having a ruthenium loading of 1 wt% using two different preparation methods. The first method incorporates the active metal ruthenium into the octahedral sites of the hydrotalcite structure during synthesis (via co-precipitation). The second method impregnates the active metal ruthenium on the surface of the Mg-Al support (via wet impregnation). The catalytic activity of these two catalysts (grafted (G) vs impregnated (I)) will then be compared in the steam reforming of glycerol reaction. Experimental The glycerol steam reforming (GSR) catalytic tests were conducted at atmospheric pressure in a MICROACTIVITY-EFFI unit (PID Eng&Tech. S.L.) at a temperature range of 400 to 700oC. Prior to catalytic testing, all catalysts (0.1g) were reduced in-situ under a 50ml/min H2 flow (50vol% in Ar) at 700oC for 1 hour at a heating rate of 10oC/min. Catalysts were then purged with Argon for 1 hour, the temperature was lowered to 400oC and the feed mixture was introduced into the reactor. The reactant solution was a 36wt% aqueous glycerol solution prepared by dissolving glycerol (Sigma Aldrich 99.0%) in distilled water (9:1 steam/glycerol molar ratio). It was introduced at a flow rate of 0.075ml/min, vaporized at 200oC in the evaporator and further eluted by the carrier gas Argon. Results and Discussion X-ray patterns of both calcined catalysts show peaks of the MgO phase (JCPDS 45-0946). Whereas only the impregnated catalyst shows peaks of the MgAl2O4 phase (JCPDS 05-0672). Similar activities are observed for both catalysts in the GSR reaction until 600oC. Above 600oC, a noticeable difference is observed whereby the impregnated catalyst shows a better catalytic activity than the grafted catalyst. This improved activity is demonstrated by a higher selectivity of the major products H2 and CO2, a lower selectivity of the by-products CH4 and CO, a higher glycerol conversion to gaseous products and a higher hydrogen yield. This difference could be due to improved metal dispersion, stability of Ru species and lower carbon deposition as a result of the different preparation method. References [1] Y.-C. Lin, "Catalytic valorization of glycerol to hydrogen and syngas," Int. J. Hydrog. Energy, vol. 38, no. 6, pp. 2678-2700, Feb. 2013. [2] A. Seretis and P. Tsiakaras, "A thermodynamic analysis of hydrogen production via aqueous phase reforming of glycerol," Fuel Process. Technol., vol. 134, pp. 107-115, Jun. 2015. [3] K. S. Avasthi, R. N. Reddy, and S. Patel, "Challenges in the Production of Hydrogen from Glycerol - A Biodiesel Byproduct Via Steam Reforming Process," Procedia Eng., vol. 51, pp. 423-429, 2013. [4] J. Estephane et al., "CO2 reforming of methane over Ni-Co/ZSM5 catalysts. Aging and carbon deposition study," Int. J. Hydrog. Energy, vol. 40, no. 30, pp. 9201-9208, Aug. 2015. [5] D. Homsi, S. Aouad, C. Gennequin, A. Aboukaïs, and E. Abi-Aad, "A highly reactive and stable Ru/Co6−xMgxAl2 catalyst for hydrogen production via methane steam reforming," Int. J. Hydrog. Energy, vol. 39, no. 19, pp. 10101-10107, Jun. 2014. [6] A. Vaccari, "Preparation and catalytic properties of cationic and anionic clays," Catal. Today, vol. 41, no. 1-3, pp. 53-71, May 1998.

Lors des analyses par spectrométrie de masse (SM) de type MALDI-TOF, la présence en abondance, dans les spectres, d'ions issus de la matrice, dans une gamme de faibles rapports masse sur charge (m/z < 800), rend la caractérisation des petites molécules (PM < 800 Da) très délicate, voire impossible, notamment si ces dernières ne sont présentes qu'en faibles quantités. Les pics matriciels masquent en effet ceux des analytes dans la région d'intérêt (i.e. 0 < m/z < 800). Les alcaloïdes qui sont des composés fréquents dans les plantes et sont souvent connus pour avoir des activités biologiques importantes, n'échappent pas à cette règle. La matrice 3- [5 '- (méthylthio) -2,2'-bithiophène-5-ylthio] propanonitrile (MT3P) (figure 1-a), a été utilisée comme nouvelle molécule matrice [1], qui facilite l'ionisation sélective des alcaloïdes dans MALDI-MS. Ici, nous avons étudié d'autres analogues bithiophéniques qui pourrait améliorée la performance d'ionisation par MALDI TOF MS. Parmi plusieurs molécules synthétisées et testées, une nouvelle matrice 3- (5'-(2-oxobutyl)-sulfanyl- [2,2'] bithiophényl-5-ylsulfanyl)-propionitrile (OBT3P) (figure 1-b) a présenté une haute performance par rapport aux autres molécules testées et aux molécules références. Ainsi, comparé au MT3P, la nouvelle matrice (OBT3P) a montré des résultats prometteurs puisqu'elle permet un gain sensible d'intensité, comparables à ce que l'on obtient avec le CHCA (le DHB apparaît inefficace à l'énergie de laser utilisée) et générant très peu d'ions "parasites". La synthèse, simple, d'OBT3P s'effectue en deux étapes avec un rendement de 70 %, à partir de produits commerciaux et pour un faible coût. Cette nouvelle matrice génère très peu d'ions parasites, présente une excellente sélectivité vis à vis des alcaloïdes. Ces résultats montrent ainsi un progrès tangible par rapport au MT3P et aux matrices commerciales. Ainsi ces travaux doivent être poursuit afin de développer des méthodes d'analyse quantitative des alcaloïdes dans des milieux biologiques complexes.

Introduction

Energy is a fundamental prerequisite for the human existence. The majority of the world total energy is used for the power generation sector, industrial applications, and transportation. According to the U.S Energy Information Administration (EIA), the total energy consumed in 2010 was 5.5282x1020 J and is predicted to rise to 8.6510x1020 J by 2040 due to the continuous growth in human population [1]. Today, 80% of the energy is being supplied by conventional fossil fuel resources, such as gasoline, liquefied petroleum gas, diesel fuel, and natural gas [2]. Studies showed that high fossil fuels consumption can unfortunately have a hazardous influence on the ecosystem, such as greenhouse gas emissions, acid rain, and global warming. Due to the huge demand for liquid fuels, especially for transportation purposes, it is necessary to find an alternate "green" source of energy. Biodiesel is one of the prevalent choices to replace the conventional diesel. Biodiesel is nontoxic, biodegradable, and environmentally friendly. Moreover it has a high cetane number, no aromatics, virtually no sulphur content, and a high flash point [3-4].

Experimental

ZSM5 zeolite was used as support to prepare a series of CaO/ZSM5 catalysts using the wet impregnation method. Different CaO loadings (5 wt.%, 15 wt.% and 35 wt.%) were used and the prepared catalysts were labeled 5CaO/ZSM5, 15CaO/ZSM5, and 35 CaO/ZSM5, respectively. The catalytic activity of these solids was investigated for the transesterification of edible sunflower oil at 60°C reaction temperature and a fixed methanol to oil molar ratio (MOMR) of 12:1. Optimization of the reaction conditions was done by modifying the catalyst to oil mass ratio and reaction time.

Results and discussion

The effect of CaO loading (wt.%) on FAME yield was investigated. The transesterification reactions were carried out with the support, 5CaO/ZSM5, 15CaO/ZSM5, and 35CaO/ZSM5 catalysts. Among the prepared catalysts, the 35CaO/ZSM5 catalyst exhibited the best catalytic performance at 60°C reaction temperature, 12:1 methanol to oil molar ratio, and 4 wt.% of catalyst loading. Optimization of the transesterification reaction conditions (reaction time, and catalyst to oil mass ratio) was done for the 35CaO/ZSM5. A FAME conversion of 92.3 % was achieved at 60°C with 12:1 methanol to oil molar ratio and 10 wt.% of catalyst loading.

Conclusion

This work shows that CaO supported on ZSM5 are efficient catalysts for biodiesel production. ZSM5 loaded with 35 wt.% of CaO showed the highest catalytic activity (>92% of FAME yield) at the following reaction conditions: methanol to oil molar ratio of 12:1, catalyst to oil mass ratio of 10wt.%., and a reaction time of 4h.

References

[1] International Energy Outlook, U.S Energy Information Administration. (Retrieved from: www.eia.gov/forecasts/ieo/) [2] P. C. Hallenbeck, J. R. Benemann, "Biological hydrogen production; fundamentals and limiting processes", Int. J. Hydrog. Energy, vol. 11, no. 27, pp. 1185-1193, 2002. [3] J.M. Marchetti, "A summary of the available technologies for biodiesel production based on a comparison of different feedstock's properties", Process Saf. Environ. Prot., vol. 90, no. 3, pp. 157-63, 2012. [4] G. Knothe, "Improving biodiesel fuel properties by modifying fatty ester composition", Energy Environ. Sci., vol. 2, no. 7, pp.759-766, 2009.