Chemical Composition,Apoptotic Activity,and Antiparasitic Effects of Ferula macrecolea Essential Oil against Echinococcus granulosus Protoscoleces

Background: Today, the present protoscolicidals used to minimize the serious risks during hydatid cyst surgery are not completely safe and have various adverse side effects. The present study aimed to evaluate the chemical composition and apoptotic activity of Ferula macrecolea essential oil (FMEO) as well as its in vitro and ex vivo protoscolicidal effects against hydatid cyst protoscoleces. Methods: Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis was performed to determine the chemical composition of FMEO. Protoscoleces of hydatid cysts were collected from liver fertile hydatid cysts of infected sheep and were then treated with various concentrations of the essential oil (75, 150, and 300 µL/mL) for 5–60 min in vitro and ex vivo. Then, by using the eosin exclusion test, the viability of the protoscoleces was studied. The caspase-3-like activity of the FMEO-treated protoscoleces was also evaluated through the colorimetric protease assay Sigma Kit based on the manufacturer’s instructions. Results: According to GC/MS, the main constituents of the essential oil were terpinolene (77.72%), n-nonanal (4.47%), and linalool (4.35%), respectively. In vitro, the maximum protoscolicidal activity of FMEO was observed at the concentrations of 150 and 300 µL/mL, such that 100% of the protoscoleces were killed after 30 and 20 min of exposure, respectively. Based on the obtained findings, the results demonstrate that FMEO required a longer time to kill protoscoleces ex vivo; after 12 min of exposure to FMEO, only 13.4% of the protoscoleces remained alive. After 48 h of the treatment of protoscoleces, FMEO, in a dose-dependent manner and at doses of 75, 150, and 300 µL/mL, induced the activation of the caspase enzyme by 24.3, 35.3, and 48.3%, respectively. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate the potent protoscolicidal effects of FMEO in vitro and ex vivo; however, further studies are required to assess the safety and the efficiency of FMEO as a promising scolicidal agent in a preclinical model and clinical setting.     

Dynamics of three coupled limit cycle oscillators with?vastly?different frequencies

A system of three coupled limit cycle oscillators with vastly different frequencies is studied. The three oscillators, when uncoupled, have the frequencies ?? ₁=O(1), ?? ₂=O(1/??) and ?? ₃=O(1/?? ²), respectively, where ???1. The method of direct partition of motion (DPM) is extended to study the leading order dynamics of the considered autonomous system. It is shown that the limit cycles of oscillators 1 and 2, to leading order, take the form of a Jacobi elliptic function whose amplitude and frequency are modulated as the strength of coupling is varied. The dynamics of the fastest oscillator, to leading order, is unaffected by the coupling to the slower oscillator. It is also found that when the coupling strength between two of the oscillators is larger than a critical bifurcation value, the limit cycle of the slower oscillator disappears. The obtained analytical results are formal and are checked by comparison to solutions from numerical integration of the system.     

Parallel mean curvature biconservative surfaces in complex space forms

In this paper, we consider PMC surfaces in complex space forms, and study the interaction between the notions of PMC, totally real and biconservative. We first consider PMC surfaces in a non-flat complex space form and prove that they are biconservative if and only if totally real. Then, we find a Simons-type formula for a well-chosen vector field constructed from the mean curvature vector field and use it to prove a rigidity result for CMC biconservative surfaces in two-dimensional complex space forms. We prove then a reduction codimension result for PMC biconservative surfaces in non-flat complex space forms. We conclude by constructing examples of CMC non-PMC biconservative submanifolds from the Segre embedding and discuss when they are proper-biharmonic.     

Phenolic Compounds Recovery from Blood Orange Peels Using a Novel Green Infrared Technology Ired-Irrad®, and Their Effect on the Inhibition of Aspergillus flavus Proliferation and Aflatoxin B1 Production

The intensification of total phenolic compound (TPC) extraction from blood orange peels was optimized using a novel green infrared-assisted extraction technique (IRAE, Ired-Irrad^®) and compared to the conventional extraction using a water bath (WB). Response surface methodology (RSM) allowed for the optimization of ethanol concentration (E), time (t), and temperature (T) in terms of extracted TPC and their antiradical activity, for both WB extraction and IRAE. Using WB extraction, the multiple response optimums as obtained after 4 h at 73 °C and using 79% ethanol/water were 1.67 g GAE/100 g for TPC and 59% as DPPH inhibition percentage. IRAE increased the extraction of TPC by 18% using 52% ethanol/water after less than 1 h at 79 °C. This novel technology has the advantage of being easily scalable for industrial usage. HPLC analysis showed that IRAE enhanced the recovery of gallic acid, resveratrol, quercetin, caffeic acid, and hesperidin. IR extracts exhibited high bioactivity by inhibiting the production of Aflatoxin B1 by 98.9%.     

Selective multistage extraction process of biomolecules from vine shoots by a combination of biological,chemical, and physical treatments

A multistep extraction process was proposed to recover polyphenols, reducing sugars, and soluble lignin from vine shoots. A physical pretreatment by high voltage electrical discharges (HVED) was followed by an enzymatic hydrolysis and a final delignification step by alkaline hydrolysis. HVED before enzymatic hydrolysis enhanced the extraction of polyphenols (+72%), reducing sugars (+43%), and soluble lignin (+104%) as compared to control experiments (enzymatic hydrolysis). HVED also reinforced the subsequent delignification process by reducing 10% lignin content in exhausted residues. Identification and quantification of ferulic acid, resveratrol, p-coumaric acid, and hydroxybenzoic acid were carried out using high-performance liquid chromatography.     

Non Parametric Distributed Inference in Sensor Networks Using Box Particles Messages

This paper deals with the problem of inference in distributed systems where the probability model is stored in a distributed fashion. Graphical models provide powerful tools for modeling this kind of problems. Inspired by the box particle filter which combines interval analysis with particle filtering to solve temporal inference problems, this paper introduces a belief propagation-like message-passing algorithm that uses bounded error methods to solve the inference problem defined on an arbitrary graphical model. We show the theoretic derivation of the novel algorithm and we test its performance on the problem of calibration in wireless sensor networks. That is the positioning of a number of randomly deployed sensors, according to some reference defined by a set of anchor nodes for which the positions are known a priori. The new algorithm, while achieving a better or similar performance, offers impressive reduction of the information circulating in the network and the needed computation times.     

Kinetics of oxidation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>,<Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>′-ethylenebis(isonitrosoacetylacetoneimine)copper(II) by peroxydisulfate in aqueous acidic solutions

Peroxydisulfate (PDS) oxidizes N,N′-ethylenebis(isonitrosoacetyleacetoneimine)copper(II) complex, Cu^IIL, to the corresponding copper(III) complex, [Cu^IIIL]⁺. The kinetic runs were performed in the presence of EDTA to scavenge any trace metal impurities. The kinetics of the reaction at constant pH, ionic strength, and temperature obeys the rate law d[Cu^IIIL]/dt = 2k ₂[Cu^IIL][S₂O₈ ²⁻] with k ₂ having a value of (8.85 ± 0.32) × 10⁻² M⁻¹ s⁻¹ at μ = 0.30 M and T = 25.0 °C. The rate constant k ₂ is not affected by variation of pH over the range 3.60–5.20. The second order rate constant is also unaffected by changing ionic strength. The values of k _obs were determined over the temperature 25.0–40.0 °C range. The enthalpy of activation, ∆H*, and entropy of activation, ∆S*, have been calculated as 34.9 ± 0.5 kJ mol⁻¹ and −173.3 ± 11.4 J K⁻¹ mol⁻¹, respectively. The kinetics of this reaction, as far as we know, is the first evidence that copper(III) is the likely reactive species in copper catalyzed PDS oxidation reactions.     

Hybrid gadolinium oxide nanoparticles: multimodal contrast agents for in vivo imaging

Luminescent hybrid nanoparticles with a paramagnetic Gd2O3 core were applied as contrast agents for both in vivo fluorescence and magnetic resonance imaging. These hybrid particles were obtained by encapsulating Gd2O3 cores within a polysiloxane shell which carries organic fluorophores and carboxylated PEG covalently tethered to the inorganic network. Longitudinal proton relaxivities of these particles are higher than the positive contrast agents like Gd-DOTA which are commonly used for clinical magnetic resonance imaging. Moreover these particles can be followed up by fluorescence imaging. This study revealed that these particles suited for dual modality imaging freely circulate in the blood vessels without undesirable accumulation in lungs and liver.     

Oral Anticancer Heterobimetallic PtIV−AuI Complexes Show High In Vivo Activity and Low Toxicity

Au^I-carbene and Pt^IV−Au^I-carbene prodrugs display low to sub-μM activity against several cancer cell lines and overcome cisplatin (cisPt) resistance. Linking a cisPt-derived Pt^IV(phenylbutyrate) complex to a Au^I-phenylimidazolylidene complex 2 , yielded the most potent prodrug. While in vivo tests against Lewis Lung Carcinoma showed that the prodrug Pt^IV(phenylbutyrate)-Au^I-carbene ( 7 ) and the 1 : 1 : 1 co-administration of cisPt: phenylbutyrate: 2 efficiently inhibited tumor growth (≈95 %), much better than 2 (75 %) or cisPt (84 %), 7 exhibited only 5 % body weight loss compared to 14 % for 2 , 20 % for cisPt and >30 % for the co-administration. 7 was much more efficient than 2 at inhibiting TrxR activity in the isolated enzyme, in cells and in the tumor, even though it was much less efficient than 2 at binding to selenocysteine peptides modeling the active site of TrxR. Organ distribution and laser-ablation (LA)-ICP-TOFMS imaging suggest that 7 arrives intact at the tumor and is activated there.