Phytochemical and In Silico ADME/Tox Analysis of Eruca sativa Extract with Antioxidant,Antibacterial and Anticancer Potential against Caco-2 and HCT-116 Colorectal Carcinoma Cell Lines

Eruca sativa Mill. (E. sativa) leaves recently grabbed the attention of scientific communities around the world due to its potent bioactivity. Therefore, the present study investigates the metabolite profiling of the ethanolic crude extract of E. sativa leaves using high resolution-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HR-LC/MS), including antibacterial, antioxidant and anticancer potential against human colorectal carcinoma cell lines. In addition, computer-aided analysis was performed for determining the pharmacokinetic properties and toxicity prediction of the identified compounds. Our results show that E. sativa contains several bioactive compounds, such as vitamins, fatty acids, alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids and phenols. Furthermore, the antibacterial assay of E. sativa extract showed inhibitory effects of the tested pathogenic bacterial strains. Moreover, the antioxidant activity of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) were found to be IC₅₀ = 66.16 μg/mL and 76.05 μg/mL, respectively. E. sativa also showed promising anticancer activity against both the colorectal cancer cells HCT-116 (IC₅₀ = 64.91 μg/mL) and Caco-2 (IC₅₀ = 83.98 μg/mL) in a dose/time dependent manner. The phytoconstituents identified showed promising pharmacokinetics properties, representing a valuable source for drug or nutraceutical development. These investigations will lead to the further exploration as well as development of E. sativa-based nutraceutical products.     

Vibro-acoustic response of orthogonally stiffened panels: The effects of finite dimensions

This paper investigates the effects of finite dimensions on the vibro-acoustic response of orthogonally stiffened panels. Three types of excitations are considered: acoustical excitation, point force excitation and random excitation by a turbulent boundary layer. In each case, a spatially windowed periodic model is compared with a Rayleigh-Ritz model where the modes of the un-stiffened panel are used as the basis functions. The latter model accounts for the reflected wave field generated at the boundaries by assuming that the panel is simply supported. On the contrary, the windowed periodic model only accounts for finiteness on sound radiation (the assumption of an infinite periodic structure is used to calculate the panel response). Numerical studies show that when the bending wavelength becomes comparable or smaller than the stiffener spacing, the periodic model is able to reproduce the results obtained with the Rayleigh-Ritz model. To complement the study, the developed models are compared with numerical simulations (finite element method) and with experimental results.     

Antimicrobial,Antioxidant, Anti-Acetylcholinesterase,Antidiabetic, and Pharmacokinetic Properties of Carum carvi L. and Coriandrum sativum L. Essential Oils Alone and in Combination

Herbs and spices have been used since antiquity for their nutritional and health properties, as well as in traditional remedies for the prevention and treatment of many diseases. Therefore, this study aims to perform a chemical analysis of both essential oils (EOs) from the seeds of Carum carvi (C. carvi) and Coriandrum sativum (C. sativum) and evaluate their antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-acetylcholinesterase, and antidiabetic activities alone and in combination. Results showed that the EOs mainly constitute monoterpenes with γ-terpinene (31.03%), β-pinene (18.77%), p-cymene (17.16%), and carvone (12.20%) being the major components present in C. carvi EO and linalool (76.41%), γ-terpinene (5.35%), and α-pinene (4.44%) in C. sativum EO. In comparison to standards, statistical analysis revealed that C. carvi EO showed high and significantly different (p < 0.05) antioxidant activity than C. sativum EO, but lower than the mixture. Moreover, the mixture exhibited two-times greater ferric ion reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) (IC₅₀ = 11.33 ± 1.53 mg/mL) and equipotent chelating power (IC₅₀ = 31.33 ± 0.47 mg/mL) than the corresponding references, and also potent activity against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (IC₅₀ = 19.00 ± 1.00 mg/mL), β-carotene (IC₅₀ = 11.16 ± 0.84 mg/mL), and superoxide anion (IC₅₀ = 10.33 ± 0.58 mg/mL) assays. Antimicrobial data revealed that single and mixture EOs were active against a panel of pathogenic microorganisms, and the mixture had the ability to kill more bacterial strains than each EO alone. Additionally, the anti-acetylcholinesterase and α-glucosidase inhibitory effect have been studied for the first time, highlighting the high inhibition effect of AChE by C. carvi (IC₅₀ = 0.82 ± 0.05 mg/mL), and especially by C. sativum (IC₅₀ = 0.68 ± 0.03 mg/mL), as well as the mixture (IC₅₀ = 0.63 ± 0.02 mg/mL) compared to the reference drug, which are insignificantly different (p > 0.05). A high and equipotent antidiabetic activity was observed for the mixture (IC₅₀ = 0.75 ± 0.15 mg/mL) when compared to the standard drug, acarbose, which is about nine times higher than each EO alone. Furthermore, pharmacokinetic analysis provides some useful insights into designing new drugs with favorable drug likeness and safety profiles based on a C. carvi and C. sativum EO mixture. In summary, the results of this study revealed that the combination of these EOs may be recommended for further food, therapeutic, and pharmaceutical applications, and can be utilized as medicine to inhibit several diseases.     

Un nouveau préconditionneur pour les problèmes elliptiques à coefficients variablesA new preconditonner for general elleptic problems

In this Note we describe a preconditionner for iteratively solving the linear system arising from the discretization of a general nonseparable elliptic problem by spectral element method. This preconditionner is constructed from approximating the original problem with the closest (in some sense) separable elliptic problem. A direct method is then used to invert the preconditionner. To cite this article: M. Azaïez et al., C. R. Mecanique 331 (2003).     

Spectral discretization of Darcy’s equations with pressure dependent porosity

We consider the flow of a viscous incompressible fluid in a rigid homogeneous porous medium provided with boundary conditions on the pressure around a circular well. When the boundary pressure presents high variations, the permeability of the medium depends on the pressure, so that the model is nonlinear. We propose a spectral discretization of the resulting system of equations which takes into account the axisymmetry of the domain and of the flow. We prove optimal error estimates and present some numerical experiments which confirm the interest of the discretization.     

Nanoscale flexoelectric energy harvesting

One of the most tantalizing applications of piezoelectricity is to harvest energy from ambient mechanical vibrations for powering micro and nano devices. However, piezoelectricity is restricted only to certain materials and is severely compromised at high temperatures. In this article, we examine in detail, the possibility of using the phenomenon of flexoelectricity for energy harvesting. The flexoelectric effect is universally present in all dielectrics and exhibits a strong scaling with size. Using a simple beam-based paradigmatical design, we theoretically and computationally examine flexoelectric energy harvesting under harmonic mechanical excitation. We find that the output power density and conversion efficiency increase significantly when the beam thickness reduces from micro to nanoscale and flexoelectricity-based energy harvesting can be a viable alternative to piezoelectrics. Specifically, the conversion efficiency in flexoelectric transduction at sub-micron thickness levels is observed to increase by two orders of magnitude as the thickness is reduced by an order of magnitude. The flexoelectric energy harvester works even for a single layer beam with a symmetric cross section which is not possible in piezoelectric energy harvesting. Our results also pave the way for exploration of high temperature energy harvesting since unlike piezoelectricity, flexoelectricity persists well beyond the Curie temperatures of the high electromechanical coupling ferroelectrics that are often used.     

Transmission loss of periodically stiffened laminate composite panels: shear deformation and in-plane interaction effects

This paper investigates the transmission loss of symmetric and asymmetric laminate composite panels periodically reinforced by composite stiffeners. A comprehensive model based on periodic structure theory is developed. First order shear deformation theory is used and the coupling of the in-plane motion of the panel with its out-of-plane motion is taken into account. Stiffeners interact with the panel through three forces (two in-plane, one out-of-plane) and a torsion moment. Three types of cross sections are investigated for the composite stiffeners: I-shaped, C-shaped, and omega-shaped cross-sections. The model is validated numerically by comparison with the finite element/boundary element method. Experimental validations are also conducted. In both cases, excellent agreement is obtained. Numerical results show that the in-plane coupling effect is increased by increasing the panel thickness and the stiffener's eccentricity. The in-plane coupling effect is also found to increase with frequency.     

Spectral discretization of the vorticity, velocity and pressure formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations

We consider the Navier–Stokes equations in a two- or three-dimensional domain provided with non standard boundary conditions which involve the normal component of the velocity and the tangential components of the vorticity. We write a variational formulation of this problem with three independent unknowns, the vorticity, the velocity and the pressure, and prove the existence of a solution for this problem. Next we propose a discretization by spectral methods which relies on this formulation. In the two-dimensional case, we prove quasi-optimal error estimates for the three unknowns. We conclude with some numerical experiments.

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Résumé Nous considérons les équations de Navier–Stokes dans un domaine biou tri-dimensionnel, munies de conditions aux limites non usuelles portant sur la composante normale de la vitesse et la ou les composantes tangentielles du tourbillon. Nous écrivons une formulation variationnelle de ce problème qui comporte trois inconnues indépendantes: le tourbillon, la vitesse et la pression. Nous prouvons que ce problème admet au moins une solution. Nous proposons une discrétisation par méthodes spectrales construite à partir de cette formulation. Dans le cas bidimensionnel, nous établissons des majorations quasi-optimales de l'erreur pour les trois inconnues. Nous concluons par quelques expériences numériques.

     

Biological Activities Evaluation of Enantiopure Isoxazolidine Derivatives: In Vitro,In Vivo and In Silico Studies

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology - A series of enantiopure isoxazolidines (3a–c) were synthesized by 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between a (−)-menthone-derived nitrone and various...     

Error bounds in high-order Sobolev norms for POD expansions of parameterized transient temperatures

In this work, we analyze the convergence of the POD expansion for the solution to the heat conduction parameterized with respect to the thermal conductivity coefficient. We obtain error bounds for the POD approximation in high-order norms in space that assure an exponential rate of convergence, uniformly with respect to the parameter whenever it remains within a compact set of positive numbers. We present some numerical tests that confirm this theoretical accuracy.