Numerical study of the energy efficiency of the building envelope containing multi-alveolar structures under Tunisian weather conditions

The study of the thermal inertia of buildings is a subject of major interest. The thermal insulation and the nature of the wall sensitively modify the inertia of the building and are the solutions to improve the energy efficiency of the envelope. The roof is well exposed to solar radiation in summer and contributes to significant losses in winter due to convective exchanges. To lead to a thermal comfort, a thermal insulation is necessary. In this context, we carry out a numerical study of the thermal behavior of a building with two zones in variable meteorological conditions for a Tunisian climate (region of Sousse) based on the thermoelectric analogy and using the nodal method as a numerical method. The object of this work is to study the effect of the thermal inertia of the roof equipped with a multi-alveolar structure on the thermal behavior of the air inside the room and on its energy consumption. Taking into account the energy input of occupant, a complete model was established to increase the accuracy of the calculations. The results show that the multi-alveolar structure placed on the outside of the roof reduces energy consumption during the winter period when the alveolar structure is placed in the conductive direction and during the summer period when the alveolar structure is placed in the insulate direction.

Impact of Combined Antiretroviral Therapy on Metabolic Syndrome Components in Adult People Living with HIV: A Literature Review

The development of metabolic derangements as a result of HIV treatment has been an important area of research since the introduction of zidovudine in the 1980’s. Antiretroviral therapy has intensely evolved in the last three decades, with new drugs gradually incorporated into everyday clinical practice. With the life expectancy of people living with HIV rapidly approaching that of their HIV-negative counterparts, the influence of these antiretrovirals on the development of the components of the metabolic syndrome remains of major interest to clinicians and their patients. In this review, we aimed to discuss the impact of cART on components of the metabolic syndrome, i.e., weight, plasma lipid levels, plasma glucose levels, and blood pressure, describing the influence of cART classes and of individual antiretrovirals. We also aimed to outline the limitations of the research conducted to date and the remaining knowledge gaps in this area.

The Open Source Community Choice

Open source communities have had and continue to have a major influence on the evolution of the Internet. By their nature, such communities involve people with diverse coding cultures and skills. Automation has consequently been of major interest to open source software developers for a long time, and many open source tools have been developed to address code variability and sustainability challenges. This chapter discusses why open source communities must automate and the challenges they will face. Solutions and current examples of automation in open source projects are provided as a guide to what is achievable. OpenShift, OpenStack, and OPNFV communities are used to illustrate different approaches and best practices. Two recently initiated automation initiatives are detailed: “Cross Community Continuous Integration” (XCI) and “Cross Testing” (Xtesting). Finally, some recommendations are provided for new projects as a guide to ease adoption of appropriate tools and methods.

Assessment of Total Phenolic Content and Antioxidant Activity Potential of Clementine Extract Obtained by Microwave Assisted Extraction Method

Citrus peels are known as rich source of bioactive compounds. Therefore, the establishment of an appropriate and innovative extraction method is a major interest to the food processing industry. The aim of this work is to assess the total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity (AA) of peels extracts prepared from five Moroccan clementine varieties. Extracts were prepared with microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) technique using acetone and methanol solvents. The evaluation of the antioxidant activity was performed by DPPH and ABTS- free radical scavenging. The extraction conditions had significant effects on total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity (AA). In fact, the highest TPC amount of clementine varieties (730.850±0.004mg GAE/100g DM) was obtained with acetone solvent for the Sidi Aissa variety. Regarding antioxidant activity, results with DPPH method showed an important antiradical and antioxidant activities for Sidi Aissa variety with methanol solvent (46.30± 1.01%) . However, ABTS method showed a good antioxidant activity for Ain Taoujdat with methanol solvent (3.02 mg/100g DM). This work provided to study the biochemical quality of Moroccan clementine extracts obtained by two microwave-assisted extraction processes in order to investigate further industrial potential uses in agro-food and pharmaceutical industries

Machine Learning Methods of Regression for Plasmonic Nanoantenna Glucose Sensing

The measurement and quantification of glucose concentrations is a field of major interest, whether motivated by potential clinical applications or as a prime example of biosensing in basic research. In recent years, optical sensing methods have emerged as promising glucose measurement techniques in the literature, with surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy combining the sensitivity of plasmonic systems and the specificity of standard infrared spectroscopy. The challenge addressed in this paper is to determine the best method to estimate the glucose concentration in aqueous solutions in the presence of fructose from the measured reflectance spectra. This is referred to as the inverse problem of sensing and usually solved via linear regression. Here, instead, several advanced machine learning regression algorithms are proposed and compared, while the sensor data are subject to a pre-processing routine aiming to isolate key patterns from which to extract the relevant information. The most accurate and reliable predictions were finally made by a Gaussian process regression model which improves by more than 60% on previous approaches. Our findings give insight into the applicability of machine learning methods of regression for sensor calibration and explore the limitations of SEIRA glucose sensing.

Biosynthesis of Polyhydroxyalkanoate by Recombinant Bacteria: A Review

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), a biodegradable polymer, has many industrial and medical applications such as heart valves, scaffold, suture and drug delivery. Because of their structural diversity and close analogy to plastics, PHAs have gained major interest over the world. Natural isolates, recombinant bacteria, and plants have all been found to improve the quality, quantity, and economics of PHA production. Their biodegradability makes them an especially appealing synthetic plastic substitute. PHB biosynthetic genes phbA, phbB, and phbC are grouped and systematised into a single phbCAB operon. In terms of alignment and clustering of the relevant genes, the PHB pathway varies greatly across bacterial genera. In this regard, the enzymes appear to have a high degree of sequence preservation. The structural studies further improve the mechanism of action of these enzymes and helped in improving and choosing the good candidates for increased production of PHB.

Sensitivity of Physiological Measures of Acute Driver Stress: A Meta-Analytic Review

Background: The link between driving performance impairment and driver stress is well-established. Identifying and understanding driver stress is therefore of major interest in terms of safety. Although many studies have examined various physiological measures to identify driver stress, none of these has as yet been definitively confirmed as offering definitive all-round validity in practice.Aims: Based on the data available in the literature, our main goal was to provide a quantitative assessment of the sensitivity of the physiological measures used to identify driver stress. The secondary goal was to assess the influence of individual factors (i.e., characteristics of the driver) and ambient factors (i.e., characteristics of the context) on driver stress. Age and gender were investigated as individual factors. Ambient factors were considered through the experimental apparatus (real-road vs. driving simulator), automation driving (manual driving vs. fully autonomous driving) and stressor exposure duration (short vs. long-term).Method: Nine meta-analyses were conducted to quantify the changes in each physiological measure during high-stress vs. low-stress driving. Meta-regressions and subgroup analyses were performed to assess the moderating effect of individual and ambient factors on driver stress.Results: Changes in stress responses suggest that several measures are sensitive to levels of driver stress, including heart rate, R-R intervals (RRI) and pupil diameter. No influence of individual and ambient factors was observed for heart rate.Applications and Perspective: These results provide an initial guide to researchers and practitioners when selecting physiological measures for quantifying driver stress. Based on the results, it is recommended that future research and practice use (i) multiple physiological measures, (ii) a triangulation-based methodology (combination of measurement modalities), and (iii) a multifactorial approach (analysis of the interaction of stressors and moderators).

IRAN-US RELATIONS AFTER THE DEATH OF QASSEM SOLEIMANI

<p>Iran-United States relations have up and down. Some sharp diplomatic statements made by the US president, Donald Trump, as well as the president of Iran, Ayatullah Khomeini. In fact, the sanctions that must be accepted by the US against Iran are embargo sanctions. This article aims to analyze how the future relations between Iran and the United States. Cooperation between the two countries has a history that dates back to the Cold War. Relations between these two countries based on a variety of interests, including economic, political, military, ideological, and security considerations . The theory used in this research is balance of power theory. The US has major interest in the Middle East and Iran is a rival of the US in achieving that interest. Nevertheless, many US foreign policies are caused tension between the two countries. Conversely, Iran has considerable economic importance, but the role of the Iran government elite also has a significant influence in the determination of their foreign policy. The findings in this study, despite challenges and complicated processes, the US and Iran are eternal rivals in the fusion of power and political influence in the Middle East, and relations between both will continue to fluctuate . </p>

When idiopathic male infertility is rooted in maternal malnutrition during the perinatal period in mice

Infertility represents a growing burden worldwide, with one in seven couples presenting difficulties conceiving. Amongst these, 10–15% of the men have idiopathic infertility that does not correlate with any defect in the classical sperm parameters measured. In the present study, we used a mouse model to investigate the effects of maternal undernutrition on fertility in male progeny. Our results indicate that mothers fed on a low protein diet during gestation and lactation produce male offspring with normal sperm morphology, concentration and motility but exhibiting an overall decrease of fertility when they reach adulthood. Particularly, in contrast to control, sperm from these offspring show a remarkable lower capacity to fertilize oocytes when copulation occurs early in the estrus cycle relative to ovulation, due to an altered sperm capacitation. Our data demonstrate for the first time that maternal nutritional stress can have long-term consequences on the reproductive health of male progeny by affecting sperm physiology, especially capacitation, with no observable impact on spermatogenesis and classical quantitative and qualitative sperm parameters. Moreover, our experimental model could be of major interest to study, explain, and ultimately treat certain categories of infertilities.

Nature's nitrite-to-ammonia expressway, with no stop at dinitrogen

Since the characterization of cytochrome c552 as a multiheme nitrite reductase, research on this enzyme has gained major interest. Today, it is known as pentaheme cytochrome c nitrite reductase (NrfA). Part of the NH4+ produced from NO2− is released as NH3 leading to nitrogen loss, similar to denitrification which generates NO, N2O, and N2. NH4+ can also be used for assimilatory purposes, thus NrfA contributes to nitrogen retention. It catalyses the six-electron reduction of NO2− to NH4+, hosting four His/His ligated c-type hemes for electron transfer and one structurally differentiated active site heme. Catalysis occurs at the distal side of a Fe(III) heme c proximally coordinated by lysine of a unique CXXCK motif (Sulfurospirillum deleyianum, Wolinella succinogenes) or, presumably, by the canonical histidine in Campylobacter jejeuni. Replacement of Lys by His in NrfA of W. succinogenes led to a significant loss of enzyme activity. NrfA forms homodimers as shown by high resolution X-ray crystallography, and there exist at least two distinct electron transfer systems to the enzyme. In γ-proteobacteria (Escherichia coli) NrfA is linked to the menaquinol pool in the cytoplasmic membrane through a pentaheme electron carrier (NrfB), in δ- and ε-proteobacteria (S. deleyianum, W. succinogenes), the NrfA dimer interacts with a tetraheme cytochrome c (NrfH). Both form a membrane-associated respiratory complex on the extracellular side of the cytoplasmic membrane to optimize electron transfer efficiency. This minireview traces important steps in understanding the nature of pentaheme cytochrome c nitrite reductases, and discusses their structural and functional features. Graphical abstract