The development of nanocomposite materials with multifunctional protective features is an urgent need in many fields. However, few works have studied the durability of these materials. Even though TiO2 nanoparticles have been extensively applied for self-cleaning effect, it displays a weak activity under visible light. Hence, in this study, pure and Gd-doped TiO2 nanoparticles (molar ratios of doping ions/Ti are 0.1 and 1) were synthesised, characterised, and then mixed with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), used as a binder, in order to produce a homogenised thin film on a very porous stone substrate. To our knowledge, Gd-doped TiO2/PDMS protective coatings are studied for the first time for application on historic structures. The protective coatings developed in this work are intended to reduce the surface wettability of the stone and protect the historic stones from dye pollution and microorganism colonisation. Moreover, in this study, the durability of the developed nanocomposite was deeply studied to evaluate the stability of the coatings. Results confirmed that samples treated with the lowest concentrations of Gd ions (0.1 mol%) showed acceptable chromatic variations, a good repellent feature, acceptable water vapour permeability, good durability, the highest self-cleaning activity, and good inhibitory behaviour against microbial colonisation.

This study characterized the genetic diversity of 18 Tunisian fig cultivars using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR). Both random and ISSR primers tested generated a total of 116 RAPD and 47 ISSR markers. Considerable genetic variation was observed among fig cultivars sampled from two regional Tunisian collections with an average diversity of 4.57. RAPD and ISSR banding patterns and genetic distances values reflected the high level of diversity among the collections and lower variability between the two collections. The correlation between the RAPD and ISSR similarity matrices computed for the 153 pairwise comparisons among the 18 varieties was lower and significant. An analysis of molecular variance showed that 92% of the total genetic diversity resided within collections, whereas only 8% between collections. The results indicated that in the local fig germplasm the information provided by RAPD and ISSR is not analogous, most likely as a consequence of the fact that the two classes of markers explore, at least in part, different portions of the genome.

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This study aimed to investigate whether the single nucleotide polymorphism C677T (rs1801133) of the methylene-tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene was associated with the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) and circulating homocysteine (Hcy) levels in Tunisian population. 310 angiografically diagnosed CAD patients and 210 controls were enrolled in this study. The MTHFR C677T (rs1801133) polymorphism was genotyped, and the Hcy concentrations were measured. The severity of CAD was evaluated using the Gensini scoring system. Compared to the CC genotype, the TT genotype confers a higher risk for CAD severity with an OR = 9.07 and 95% CI = 3.78–21.8. The T allele was the predisposing allele for CAD and that it was probably associated with CAD severity. The area under the ROC curve for Hcy was 0.764 (95% CI 0.660 to 0.868, p = 0.001). The receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC) for Hcy showed its useful prediction of CAD. Hcy levels were not significantly associated with CAD severity expressed by Gensini Score (GS). The MTHFR C677T (rs1801133) polymorphism influences circulating Hcy levels. The MTHFR C677T polymorphism and hyperhomocysteinemia could have an important role in the prediction of the presence and not the severity expressed by GS of CAD.

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Gardner's syndrome is an autosomal dominant condition characterized by multiple colorectal polyposis associated with various soft and hard tissue tumors. We report a case of adrenal adenoma in a 37-year-old woman with Gardner's syndrome. Although extraintestinal neoplasms, particularly adrenal lesions, are a rare association, an increased awareness is important.

Humans have the ability to easily separate a composed speech and to form perceptual representations of the constituent sources in an acoustic mixture thanks to their ears. Until recently, researchers attempt to build computer models of high-level functions of the auditory system. The problem of the composed speech segregation is still a very challenging problem for these researchers. In our case, we are interested in approaches that are addressed to the monaural speech segregation. For this purpose, we study in this paper the computational auditory scene analysis (CASA) to segregate speech from monaural mixtures. CASA is the reproduction of the source organization achieved by listeners. It is based on two main stages: segmentation and grouping. In this work, we have presented, and compared several studies that have used CASA for speech separation and recognition.