The aim of this study was to assess a possible association between breast malignancy and ipsilateral higher vascularity on gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography. One hundred six patients were examined by dynamic gadolinium-enhanced 3D MR imaging. Magnetic resonance angiographic views were generated by image subtraction and maximum intensity projection. The study included 85 patients with unilateral malignant breast neoplasms and 21 with unilateral benign lesions. Three blinded readers independently reviewed the MR angiograms after masking the lesions and the corresponding contralateral sites. The readers were asked to determine whether vascularity was higher on the right side, higher on the left side, or equal on both sides. The results were analyzed by the Kappa statistic and Pearson's chi-square test. The blood vessels of the breasts were clearly seen in all cases. There was good agreement among the observers (kappa > 0.54) in assessing vascularity on both sides. Breasts harboring malignant neoplasms were found to have a higher vascularity than the contralateral breasts (p < 0.005). This sign of malignancy had a sensitivity of 76.5%, a specificity of 57%, and an accuracy of 72.6%. Blood vessels of the breast can be depicted by MR angiography. Unilateral malignant neoplasms are associated with a higher ipsilateral vascularity. In conjunction with other indications of malignancy on gadolinium-enhanced MR images, a higher ipsilateral vascularity may serve as an additional sign of malignancy.

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Desorption and adsorption equilibrium moisture isotherms ofZiziphus spina-christileaves were determined using the gravimetric-static method at 30, 40, and 50°C for water activity(aw)ranging from 0.057 to 0.898. At a givenaw, the results show that the moisture content decreases with increasing temperature. A hysteresis effect was observed. The experimental data of sorption were fitted by eight models (GAB, BET, Henderson-Thompson, modified-Chung Pfost, Halsey, Oswin, Peleg, and Adam and Shove). After evaluating the models according to several criteria, the Peleg and Oswin models were found to be the most suitable for describing the sorption curves. The net isosteric heats of desorption and adsorption ofZiziphus spina-christileaves were calculated by applying the Clausius-Clapeyron equation to the sorption isotherms and an expression for predicting these thermodynamic properties was given.

Solid-state fermentation (SSF) is an alternative low cost useful process that has many important applications in the field of biotechnology.  In this study, SSF has been employed as a process for the production of value-added agricultural by-product using coconut testa (CT), rice bran (RB) and the combination of both substrates (CT-RB). The effect of SSF by Monascus purpureus on total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant, anti-tyrosinase and anti-elastase of the substrates were studied and compared with its non-fermented counterparts.  The results showed that the SSF has improved the TPC up to three-fold higher in the studied substrates.  Antioxidant potential evaluated using FRAP analysis also exhibited an enhancement in fermented substrates with the values ranging from 23.70 to 63.15 mg AAE/g sample.  On the other hand, the radical scavenging activity evaluated using DPPH assay showed a different trend in comparison to the TPC and FRAP analyses.  In another two analyses, tyrosinase and elastase inhibition activities were also enhanced in most substrates upon the fermentation. The changes in free phenolic acids content (p-coumaric, caffeic, ferulic, sinapic, vanillic, protocatechuic, gallic and 4-hydroxybenzoic and syringic acid) of the substrates after fungal fermentation was also examined through high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. In summary, SSF offers a tool to further increase the bioactive potential of the studied substrate.

The genus Launaea (Asteraceae) is represented in the flora of Algeria by nine species including five endemics of north africa [1]. Among them, Launaea arboresens (local name "Oum Lbina") is an endemic herbaceous medicinal plant mainly distributed in the southwest of Algeria and southeast of Morocco [2,3].To the best of our knowledge, there are no references about the oil content and chemical composition of Launaea arboresens. Thus, in continuation of our ethnopharmacological, phytochemical, and antimicrobial studies of the Algerian Sahara medicinal plants [4][5][6], we report here the results of our studies on the composition of L. arboresens oil from Algerian Sahara.The species were collected during flowering in southwestern Algeria and identified by ANN (National Agency of Nature protection -Bechar, Algeria). A voucher specimen is kept in the Herbarium of POSL Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences ( University of Bechar, Algeria) under No. CA 00/25. The plants were crumbled and hydrodistilled for 6 hours using a Clevenger apparatus. The oil was subsequently dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and stored at 4°C until analysis.GC/MS analysis was performed on a Shimadzu GC-17A gas chromatograph, interfaced with a Shimadzu QP5000 mass spectrometer, operating at electron impact of 70 eV with an ion source temperature at 250°C and scan mass range of 40-400 m/z at a sampling rate of 0.5 scan/s. A Supelco CBP-5 capillary column (30 m × 0.25 mm, film thickness 0.25 µm) was used. The oven temperature was programmed as follows: 60°C for 2 min and then up to 240°C at 3°C/min, then to 300°C at 10°C/min, ending with a 10 min at 300°C. The carrier gas was He (1.0 mL/min), and the injector and detector temperatures were 240°C. Samples were injected by splitting and the split ratio was 1:5.The hydrodistillation of the aeriel part of Launaea arboresens gave a green yellowish oil in a yield of 0.07% on dried material. Seventeen compounds were identified, representing 84.96% of the total oil [7,8]. The essential oil of L. arboresens was a mixture of different substances (Table 1), including oxygen-containing monoterpenes, alcohols, aldehydes, and esters. Esters were the dominant group in the oil (58.24%) with dioctyl phthalate (38.6%) and decanoic acid, decyl ester (12.07%) as the main constituents.Alkenes and ketones were the minor constituents of the oil. The terpenoid portion consisted of two oxygenated monoterpenes accounting for 7.24% of the oil. We also found aldehydes in considerable amounts (16.09%).The oil components were identified by computer search using the NIST21 and NIST107 libraries of mass spectral data, by comparison of their retention indices and visual inspection of the mass spectra from the literature for confirmation. The relative amounts of the individual components found in the oil (Table 1) are based on the peak areas obtained, without FID response factor corrections.

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The current study focuses on the phytochemical characterization and biological activity of phenolic compounds derived from leaves of Moringa oleifera Lam. (Moringaceae) in the Tabelbala area (Bechar, Algeria). For a concentration of 1 mg/ml, the antioxidant tests revealed that the different extracts have a good reducing activity, with the tannin extract having the highest percentage of free radical inhibition (DPPH: 94%) compared to the n-butanolic extract (92%) and the ethyl acetate extract (88%). Furthermore, the tannin extract and the n-butanolic fraction of the flavonoids of the examined leaves showed significant antioxidant activity compared to ascorbic acid used as a reference (IC50 = 0.05 ± 0.14 mg/ml), with IC50 values of 0.07 ± 0.79 mg/ml for tannins and 0.0823 ± 0.25 mg/ml for the n-butanolic extract. In addition, the ferric reduction antioxidant power (FRAP) test reveals that all the tested extracts have a significant reduction power. The different selective extracts showed strong antimicrobial activity against nine pathogenic microbial strains: Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853), Klebsiella pneumoniae (ATCC 13883), Citrobacter freundii (ATCC 29212), Acinetobacter baumannii (ATCC 19606), Bacillus cereus (ATCC 11778), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Enterococus faecalis (ATCC 13045), and Candida albicans, where the ethyl acetate fraction has a higher antibacterial activity than n-butanolic and tannin extract, with the zone of inhibition diameters ranging from 11 to 23 mm and have minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) between 0.39 and 3.125 mg/ml. These findings give scientific support for the plant’s traditional use, highlighting the value of traditional medicines in the treatment of many diseases.