University Frères Mentouri Constantine 1

We compute the running of the cosmological constant and Newton's constant taking into account the effect of quantum fields with any spin between 0 and 2. We find that Newton's constant does not vary appreciably but the cosmological constant can change by many orders of magnitude when one goes from cosmological scales to typical elementary particle scales. In the extreme infrared, zero modes drive the cosmological constant to zero.

OBJECTIVES: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) includes a wide spectrum of manifestations ranging from nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis and eventually cirrhosis. The prevalence of NAFLD has been shown to be increasing over time; however, the prevalence of NASH cirrhosis and advanced fibrosis over time has not been well studied. Estimate the changes in prevalence of NASH cirrhosis and NAFLD-associated advanced fibrosis among adults in the United States. METHODS: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data obtained during the periods from 1999-2002 and 2009-2012 were analyzed to estimate the prevalence of NASH cirrhosis and NAFLD-associated advanced fibrosis in subjects aged ≥18 years at the time of enrollment. We excluded patients with viral hepatitis, excessive alcohol consumption, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) or alanine aminotransferase (ALT) >500 and patients who were pregnant. Cirrhosis was defined by AST to platelet ratio index (APRI) >2 and abnormal liver function tests. NASH cirrhosis was defined as cirrhosis that presented with at least one of the following: obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance (HOMA-IR≥3), and metabolic syndrome. Advanced fibrosis was defined by using well-established cutoff values for APRI, fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4) and NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS). Population weighted prevalence was calculated separately for two groups to account for complex sampling method of NHANES. RESULTS: A total of 7034 NHANES participants from 1999-2002 and 2009-2012 group were included with mean age of 46.2±0.59 and 47.3±0.51 years, respectively, at the time of screening. The prevalence of NASH cirrhosis was significantly higher in 2009-2012 group (0.178% with an estimated 417,524 American adults with NASH-associated cirrhosis) compared to 1999-2002 group (0.072%); P value<0.05. The prevalence of NAFLD with advanced fibrosis also increased from 0.84 to 1.75% during the same time period (P value<0.001) corresponding to 4,104,871 American adults. During these time periods, there were also significant increases in obesity (29.8 vs. 36.6%), diabetes (8.3 vs. 11.9%), and insulin resistance (34.7 vs. 42.1%); P value <0.005 for all of them. CONCLUSIONS: There has been a 2.5-fold and 2-fold increases in the prevalence of NASH cirrhosis and NAFLD-associated advanced fibrosis, respectively, in 2009-2012 compared to 1999-2002. Extrapolation of NHANES data suggests that in 2010, 417,524 in the US had NASH cirrhosis, and 4,104,871 had NAFLD-associated advanced fibrosis. This represents a major disease burden and suggests the need for widespread programs to identify and treat those affected, and public health efforts aimed at controlling the burden of NAFLD and its complications.

Essential oils are of paramount importance in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, agricultural, and food areas thanks to their crucial properties. However, stability and bioactivity determine the effectiveness of essential oils. Polymeric nanoencapsulation is a well-established approach for the preservation of essential oils. It offers a plethora of benefits, including improved water solubility, effective protection against degradation, prevention of volatile components evaporation and controlled and targeted release. Among the several techniques used for the design of polymeric nanoparticles, nanoprecipitation has attracted great attention. This review focuses on the most outstanding contributions of nanotechnology in essential oils encapsulation via nanoprecipitation method. We emphasize the chemical composition of essential oils, the principle of polymeric nanoparticle preparation, the physicochemical properties of essential oils loaded nanoparticles and their current applications.

The fractional-order differentiator sm, integrator s−m (0&lt;m&lt;1) and the fractional PIλDµ controller are studied. A very simple method, useful in system and control theory, which consists of approximating, for a given frequency band, these fractional-order operators by a rational function, is presented. Simple analogue circuits that can serve as analogue fractional-order integrator and fractional-order differentiator are also obtained. A rational function and an analogue circuit realisation of the fractional PIλDµ controller are also derived. Illustrative examples are presented to show the usefulness of the method.

More than 6 billion people live outside industrialized countries and have insufficient access to cardiac surgery. Given the recently confirmed high prevailing mortality for rheumatic heart disease in many of these countries together with increasing numbers of patients needing interventions for lifestyle diseases due to an accelerating epidemiological transition, a significant need for cardiac surgery could be assumed. Yet, need estimates were largely based on extrapolated screening studies while true service levels remained unknown. A multi-author effort representing 16 high-, middle-, and low-income countries was undertaken to narrow the need assessment for cardiac surgery including rheumatic and lifestyle cardiac diseases as well as congenital heart disease on the basis of existing data deduction. Actual levels of cardiac surgery were determined in each of these countries on the basis of questionnaires, national databases, or annual reports of national societies. Need estimates range from 200 operations per million in low-income countries that are nonendemic for rheumatic heart disease to >1,000 operations per million in high-income countries representing the end of the epidemiological transition. Actually provided levels of cardiac surgery range from 0.5 per million in the assessed low- and lower-middle income countries (average 107 ± 113 per million; representing a population of 1.6 billion) to 500 in the upper-middle-income countries (average 270 ± 163 per million representing a population of 1.9 billion). By combining need estimates with the assessment of de facto provided levels of cardiac surgery, it emerged that a significant degree of underdelivery of often lifesaving open heart surgery does not only prevail in low-income countries but is also disturbingly high in middle-income countries.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of magnetic field on entropy generation and natural convection inside an enclosure filled with a hybrid nanofluid and having a conducting wavy solid block. Also, the effect of fluid–solid thermal conductivity ratio is investigated. Design/methodology/approach The governing equations that are formulated in the dimensionless form are discretized via finite volume method. The velocity–pressure coupling is assured by the SIMPLE algorithm. Heat transfer balance is used to verify the convergence. The validation of the numerical results was performed by comparing qualitatively and quantitatively the results with previously published investigations. Findings The results indicate that the magnetic field and the conductivity ratio of the wavy solid block can significantly affect the dynamic and thermal field and, consequently, the heat transfer rate and entropy generation because of heat transfer, fluid friction and magnetic force. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present numerical study is the first attempt to use hybrid nanofluid for studying the entropy generation because of magnetohydrodynamic natural convective flow in a square cavity with the presence of a wavy circular conductive cylinder. Irreversibilities due to magnetic effect are taken into account. The effect of fluid–solid thermal conductivity ratio is considered.

The present article deals with the analysis of experimental results, in terms of load-carrying capacity and strain, obtained from tests on plain- and reinforced-concrete (RC) cylinders strengthened with external carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP). The parameters considered are the number of composite layers and the compressive strength of unconfined concrete. The effective circumferential FRP failure strain and the effect of the effective lateral confining pressure were investigated. In total, 30 cylinders were subjected to axial compression, which included control specimens. All the test specimens were loaded to failure in axial compression and the behavior of the specimens in the axial and transverse directions was investigated. Test results showed that the CFRP wrap increases the strength and ductility of plain- and RC cylinders significantly. A simple model is presented to predict the compressive strength and axial strain of FRP-confined columns.

A previous analysis showed that Gammaproteobacteria could be the sole recoverable bacteria from surface-sterilized nodules of three wild species of Hedysarum. In this study we extended the analysis to eight Mediterranean native, uninoculated legumes never previously investigated regarding their root-nodule microsymbionts. The structural organization of the nodules was studied by light and electron microscopy, and their bacterial occupants were assessed by combined cultural and molecular approaches. On examination of 100 field-collected nodules, culturable isolates of rhizobia were hardly ever found, whereas over 24 other bacterial taxa were isolated from nodules. None of these nonrhizobial isolates could nodulate the original host when reinoculated in gnotobiotic culture. Despite the inability to culture rhizobial endosymbionts from within the nodules using standard culture media, a direct 16S rRNA gene PCR analysis revealed that most of these nodules contained rhizobia as the predominant population. The presence of nodular endophytes colocalized with rhizobia was verified by immunofluorescence microscopy of nodule sections using an Enterobacter-specific antibody. Hypotheses to explain the nonculturability of rhizobia are presented, and pertinent literature on legume endophytes is discussed.

Central events of ultrasonic action are the bubbles of cavitation that can be considered as powered microreactors within which high-energy chemistry occurs. This work presents the results of a comprehensive numerical assessment of frequency and saturating gases effects on single bubble sonochemistry. Computer simulations of chemical reactions occurring inside a bubble oscillating in liquid water irradiated by an ultrasonic wave have been performed for a wide range of ultrasonic frequencies (213-1100kHz) under different saturating gases (O2, air, N2 and H2). For O2 and H2 bubbles, reactions mechanism consisting in 25 reversible chemical reactions were proposed for studying the internal bubble-chemistry whereas 73 reversible reactions were taken into account for air and N2 bubbles. The numerical simulations have indicated that radicals such as OH, H, HO2 and O are created in the bubble during the strong collapse. In all cases, hydroxyl radical (OH) is the main oxidant created in the bubble. The production rate of the oxidants decreases as the driving ultrasonic frequency increases. The production rate of OH radical followed the order O2>air>N2>H2 and the order becomes more remarkable at higher ultrasonic frequencies. The effect of ultrasonic frequency on single bubble sonochemistry was attributed to its significant impact on the cavitation process whereas the effects of gases were attributed to the nature of the chemistry produced in the bubble at the strong collapse. It was concluded that, in addition to the gas solubility, the nature of the internal bubble chemistry is another parameter of a paramount importance that controls the overall sonochemical activity in aqueous solutions.

This paper presents a new inspired algorithm called quantum inspired cuckoo search algorithm (QICSA). This one is a new framework relying on quantum computing principles and cuckoo search algorithm. The contribution consists in defining an appropriate representation scheme in the cuckoo search algorithm that allows applying successfully on combinatorial optimisation problems some quantum computing principles like qubit representation, superposition of states, measurement, and interference. This hybridisation between quantum inspired computing and bioinspired computing has led to an efficient hybrid framework which achieves better balance between exploration and exploitation capabilities of the search process. Experiments on knapsack problems show the effectiveness of the proposed framework and its ability to achieve good quality solutions.

As a new area of technology, the Internet of Things (IoT) is a flagship and promising paradigm for innovating society. However, IoT-based critical infrastructures are an appealing target for cybercriminals. Such distinctive infrastructures are increasingly sensitive to cyber vulnerabilities and subject to many cyberattacks. Thus, protecting these infrastructures is a significant issue for organizations and nations. In this context, raising the cybersecurity posture of critical cyber infrastructures is an extremely urgent international issue. In addition, with the rapid development of adversarial techniques, current cyber threats have become more sophisticated, complicated, advanced and persistent. Thus, given these factors, prior to implementing efficient and resilient cybersecurity countermeasures, identification and in-depth mapping of cyber threats is an important step that is generally overlooked. Therefore, to solve cybersecurity challenges, this study presents a critical analysis of the most recent cybersecurity issues for IoT-based critical infrastructures. We then discuss potential cyber threats and cyber vulnerabilities and the main exploitation strategies adopted by cybercriminals. Further, we provide a taxonomy of cyberattacks that may affect critical cyber infrastructures. Finally, we present security requirements and some realistic recommendations to enhance cybersecurity solutions.

The ${}^{34,35}\mathrm{Al}$ $\ensuremath{\beta}$ decays have been studied at the CERN online mass separator ISOLDE by \ensuremath{\beta}-\ensuremath{\gamma}, \ensuremath{\beta}-\ensuremath{\gamma}-\ensuremath{\gamma}, and $\ensuremath{\beta}\ensuremath{-}n\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\gamma}$ measurements in order to corroborate the low-level description of ${}^{34}\mathrm{Si}$ and to obtain the first information on the level structure of the $N=21$ isotope ${}^{35}\mathrm{Si}.$ Earlier observed $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ lines in ${}^{34}\mathrm{Al}$ decay were confirmed and new $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ transitions following both $\ensuremath{\beta}$ decay and $\ensuremath{\beta}\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{d}$ neutron emission have been established. The first level scheme of ${}^{35}\mathrm{Si}$ includes three excited states at 910, 974, and 2168 keV. Indication is found for ${J}^{\ensuremath{\pi}}{=(3/2)}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ and ${(3/2)}^{+}$ for the first two excited states, respectively. Beta-decay half-life of ${T}_{1/2}=38.6(4) \mathrm{ms}$ and $\ensuremath{\beta}\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{d}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{d}$ neutron branching value ${P}_{n}=41(13)%$ were measured unambiguously. The significance of the single-particle energy determination at $N=21,$ $Z=14$ for assessing the effective interaction in $\mathrm{sd}\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{fp}$ shell-model calculations is discussed and illustrated by predictions for different neutron-rich isotopes.

Today there are a lot of dyes available commercially. They are used in many industries such as food, paper, carpet, rubber, plastics, cosmetics and textiles. Its can be classified as follows: anionic (direct, acid and reactive dyes), cationic (basic dyes) and non-ionic (dispersive dyes). Removal of a basic dye, methylene blue, from an aqueous solution was studied by biosorption on banana and orange Peels waste. The biosorbent was chemically modified. To mentioned functional groups in order to determine their contribution to the adsorption of dyes. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) was investigated. Kinetic study is also carried out to observe the effects of various process parameters. The maximum values of adsorption capacities for activated banana peel (ABP) was 19,671 mg/g and 18,647 mg/g for natural banana peel (NBP) at pH 4–8, 20°C. The results follow kinetic of pseudo second-order rate equation. The suitability of the adsorbent was tested by fitting the adsorption data with four isotherms, namely Freundlich, Langmuir and Temkin. The characteristic parameters for each isotherm have been determined. The Freundlich equation represented the best fit of experimental data for activated banana peel (ABP) than the other isotherm equations, and Langmuir equation described the adsorption of natural biosorbent (NBP). It was observed that activated banana peel was a suitable adsorbent than other for removal of methylene blue from aqueous solutions.

Following recent work on a coarse-grained effective action for gravity, we compute the running of the cosmological constant and Newton's constant in General Relativity, taking into account also the effect of minimally coupled matter fields.

Previous proteomic analyses established a list of proteins biomarkers of beef tenderness. The present study quantified the relative abundance of 21 of these proteins by dot-blot technique in the Longissimus thoracis and Semitendinosus muscles of 71 young bulls from three breeds: Aberdeen Angus (AA), Limousin (LI), and Blond d'Aquitaine (BA). For both muscles overall tenderness was estimated by sensory analysis; shear force was measured with a Warner-Bratzler instrument, and an index combining sensory and mechanical measurements was calculated. Multiple regressions based on relative abundances of these proteins were used to propose equations of prediction of the three evaluations of tenderness. Hsp70-1B appeared to be a good biomarker of low tenderness in the three breeds and in the two muscles. Proteins such as lactate dehydrogenase-B, myosin heavy chain IIx, and small heat shock proteins (Hsp27, Hsp20, and αB-crystallin) were related to tenderness but inversely according to the muscle and breed. The results demonstrate that prediction of tenderness must take into account muscle characteristics and animal type.

In the present paper, natural convection in an annulus between two confocal elliptic cylinders filled with a Cu-Al2O3/water hybrid nanofluid is investigated numerically. The inner cylinder is heated at a constant surface temperature while the outer wall is isothermally cooled. The basic equations are formulated in elliptic coordinates and developed in terms of the vorticity-stream function formulation using the dimensionless form for 2D, laminar and incompressible flow under steady-state condition. The governing equations are discretized using the finite volume method and solved by an in-house FORTRAN code. Numerical simulations are performed for various volume fractions of nanoparticles (0 ≤ ϕ ≤ 0.12) and Rayleigh numbers (103 ≤ Ra ≤ 3 × 105). The eccentricity of the inner and outer ellipses and the angle of orientation are fixed at e1 = 0.9, e2 = 0.6 and γ = 0° respectively. It is found that employing a Cu-Al2O3/water hybrid nanofluid is more efficient in heat transfer rate compared to the similar Al2O3/water nanofluid.

Solid waste management in most MENA countries is characterized by lack of planning, improper disposal, inadequate collection services, inappropriate technologies that suit the local conditions and technical requirements, and insufficient funding. Therefore, waste management is mainly limited to collection, transportation, and disposal. As the circular economy has recently been given high priority on the MENA region’s political agenda, all MENA member states are seeking to move away from old-fashioned waste disposal, “waste management”, towards a more intelligent waste treatment, “resource efficiency”. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of national systems for municipal solid waste (MSW) management, and material and energy recovery as an important aspect thereof, in the context of the circular economy in selected countries in the MENA region. Since policy, regulation, and treatment technologies are traditionally connected to MSW management, the focus of this article is twofold. Firstly, it aims to identify the different practices of solid waste management employed in selected MENA region countries and their approaches to embracing the circular economy and, secondly, it examines the extent to which policies and technologies applied play any role in this context. The study revealed that most waste management issues in the countries analyzed appear to be due to political factors and the decentralized nature of waste management with multi-level management and responsibilities. In fact, material and energy recovery in the context of municipal solid waste management does not differ significantly in the countries in the MENA region considered. In most cases, “waste” is still seen as “trouble” rather than a resource. Therefore, a fresh vision on how the solid waste management system can be transformed into a circular economy is required; there is a need for paradigm shift from a linear economy model to a circular-economy model.

The arrival of autonomous vehicles (AVs) promises many great benefits, including increased safety and reduced energy consumption, pollution, and congestion. However, these engines have many security and privacy issues that could undermine the expected benefits if not addressed. AVs will provide new opportunities for hackers to carry out malicious attacks, posing a great threat to the future of mobility and data protection. The research trend in this field indicates that combining Blockchain and AI could bring strong protection for AVs against malicious attacks. Blockchain and AI have different working paradigms, but when merged, they can empower each other, and solve many security and privacy issues of AVs. AI can optimise the construction of the Blockchain to make it more efficient, secure and energy-saving, where Blockchain provides data immutability and trust mechanism for AI-based solutions and makes them more transparent, trustful, and explainable. Although some research is being conducted on this area, the topic of applying Blockchain and AI for securing AVs is not deeply investigated. In this paper, we explore the possible application of an amalgamation of Blockchain and AI solutions for securing AVs. We first introduce a classification of security and privacy threats that may arise from the application of AVs. Then, we provide an overview of recent literature regarding Blockchain and AI usage for securing AVs. Finally, we highlight limitations and challenges that may face the integration of Blockchain and AI with AVs based on our systemic review and suggest potential future directions for research in this field.

To investigate the total phenolics, flavonoids and tannins content and the in vitro antioxidant activities of methanolic extracts of six wild Mentha species which are Mentha aquatica , Mentha arvensis , Mentha piperita , Mentha pulegium , Mentha rotundifolia and Mentha villosa . The Folin–Ciocalteu method was used to determine the total phenols content while flavonoids were estimated according to the aluminum chloride colorimetric method. To evaluate tannins content, vanillin and HCl were added to methanolic extracts. The antioxidant potential was measured by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging, ferrous ion chelating and the inhibition of β-carotene bleaching assays. The methanol extracts of Algerian mints were rich in phenolic compounds and exhibited powerful antioxidant activity ranging from 7.5 μg/mL to 44.66 μg/mL, which varied significantly among species. Mentha aquatica stood out with efficient antioxidant ability which was correlated to the high total phenolics content, followed by Mentha arvensis and Mentha piperita with very close values, comparing to Mentha pulegium , Mentha rotundifolia and Mentha villosa with lowest values. These results show that methanolic extracts of Mentha species from Algeria have a great potential of polyphenols which can be used as a natural food preservative and antioxidant source.

FSIS4 was purified for first time and recovered in a single step using a three-phase partitioning (TPP) system. The fungal α-amylase, at a concentration of 1.936 U per kg of flour, was used in bread-making and compared to the commercial enzyme. The results showed a significant effect of the recovered α-amylase in the prepared bread and allowed us to improve the quality of the bread. The study indicated clearly that the recovered α-amylase is a potential candidate for future applications in the bread-making industry and in other food biotechnology applications.