Basic Science Sector

Nigella sativa L. (black cumin), commonly known as black seed, is a member of the Ranunculaceae family. This seed is used as a natural remedy in many Middle Eastern and Far Eastern countries. Extracts prepared from N. sativa have, for centuries, been used for medical purposes. Thus far, the organic compounds in N. sativa, including alkaloids, steroids, carbohydrates, flavonoids, fatty acids, etc. have been fairly well characterized. Herein, we summarize some new extraction techniques, including microwave assisted extraction (MAE) and supercritical extraction techniques (SFE), in addition to the classical method of hydrodistillation (HD), which have been employed for isolation and various analytical techniques used for the identification of secondary metabolites in black seed. We believe that some compounds contained in N. sativa remain to be identified, and that high-throughput screening could help to identify new compounds. A study addressing environmentally-friendly techniques that have minimal or no environmental effects is currently underway in our laboratory.

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This study aimed to characterise Egyptian desert vine flora and compare it with that of deserts in other continents, such as Australia and North America. Specifically, 5 common climbing desert plants (Citrullus colocynthis, Cocculus pendulus, Cucumis prophetarum, Pergularia tomentosa, and Periploca angustifolia) were selected for this study. The floristic composition, vegetation heterogeneity, and chorological affinities of the associated species of the studied climbing plants were quantitatively analysed.

An electrochemical sensor was developed by using poly (3,4-ethylenedioxy thiophene) electrode in presence of different types of surfactants. Voltammetric behavior of isoniazid was studied at this electrode in the presence and absence of SDS and CTAB and interesting electrocatalytic effects were found. The presence of surfactant in the medium plays a key role in the electrostatic attraction and repulsion of isoniazid towards the polymeric surface in different pH values. The electrochemical behavior of isoniazid was investigated by cyclic voltammetry, linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The linear response obtained for isoniazid was in the range of 0.1 to 8 ?mol L-1 and 10 to 100 ?mol L-1 with correlation coefficients of 0.999 and 0.998 and detection limits 32 nmol L-1 and 45 nmol L-1, respectively. The utility of this modified electrode was demonstrated for the determination of INH in human urine.

Carboxymethyl chitosan, (CMC), and N-laurylcarboxymethyl chitosan (LCMC), have been prepared as water soluble derivatives of chitosan. These biodegradable chitosan derivatives were characterized and investigated for nuclear imaging and body distribution. They were labeled with 99mTc to use them as targeted delivery to some organs in vivo for nuclear imaging and to follow their biodistribution within the body. The factors controlling the labeling efficiency have been investigated.

Measuring the ventilation rates and then quantifying the gaseous emissions from naturally ventilated barns is a particularly difficult task and associated with large uncertainties; where no accurate, reliable, and online method is available for ventilation rate measurements. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop further the tracer gas technique (TG) for ventilation rate measurements through winter seasons. Fifteen field experiments were carried out to study the ventilation rates in a naturally ventilated dairy barn located in North Germany through three consecutive winter seasons.

The scattering of x-rays from biological samples has been shown to produce characteristic profiles which depend on their molecular structure. The highly ordered fat molecules in an adipose tissue result in a relatively sharp scattering peak at 1.1nm-1 with a scattering profile which is considerably different from the scattering profile of a water-rich tissue. The latter is characterized by a broad scattering peak at about 1.6nm-1. A biological sample consisting of a mixture of both adipose and a water-rich tissue is expected to show a scattering profile which is directly linked to the relative contribution of each component and would reflect the percentage by volume of each component in the mixture. In this work, x-ray scattering profiles of a number of dairy products and water are measured. The values of two selected x-ray scattering characterization parameters (I1/I2% and areas A1/A2% of the scattering peaks at 1.1 nm-1 and 1.6 nm-1 respectively) are plotted against the fat content of each of the measured dairy samples. Results show a strong linear dependence of each of the x-ray scattering parameters and the fat content of the investigated dairy products. These results suggest a possible use of such technique as a new, simple and straight forward method for the determination of fat content of dairy products that would join and support the currently available techniques.

Atomic structure data and effective collision strengths for 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d10 and 54 fine–structure levels contained in the configurations 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d9 4l (l = s, p, d, f) for the nickel-like La ion have been investigated. These data are used in the determination of the reduced population for the 55 fine structure levels over a wide range of electron densities (from 1020 to 1022) and at various electron plasma temperatures. The gain coefficients for those transitions with positive population inversion factor are determined and plotted against the electron density.

In the present study, structural properties of 2-[(1H-Benzimidazol-2-ylmethyl)-amino]-benzoic acid methyl ester have been studied extensively by spectral methods and X-ray crystallography. Quantum mechanical calculations of energies, geometries, vibrational wavenumbers, NMR and electronic transitions were carried out by DFT using B3LYP functional combined with 6-31G(d) basis set. Natural bond orbitals (NBO) analysis and frontier molecular orbitals were performed at the same level of theory. DFT calculations showed good agreement between the theoretical and experimental values of optimized and X-ray structure as well as between the vibrational and NMR spectroscopy. The title compound was screened for its antibacterial activity referring to Tetracycline as standard antibacterial agent.

The acceleration of ultra high energy cosmic rays is conjectured to occur through various interactions with the electromagnetic fields in different astrophysical objects, like magnetic matter clumps, besides the well-known shock and stochastic Fermi mechanisms. It is apparent that the latter are not depending on the particle's charge, quantitatively. Based on this model, a considerable portion of the dynamics, that derives a charged particle parallel to a magnetic field and under the influence of a force, is assumed to be composed of an acceleration by a non- magnetic force and a gyromotion along direction, plus drifts in the direction of The model and its formalism are introduced. Various examples for drift motions and accelerating forces are suggested. The formalism is given in a non-relativistic version. Obviously, the translation into the relativistic version is standard. In a forthcoming work, a quantitative estimation of the energy gained by charged cosmic rays in various astrophysical objects will be evaluated.

u2 values are found to first increase with pT, reaching a maximum aroundpT=3GeV/c, and then to gradually decrease to almost zero, with the decline persisting up to at least pT=40GeV/c over the full centrality range measured.

In the present study, the acid-baseequilibria of N,O-carboxymethy chitosan abbreviated as (NOCC), is investigated. The complex formation equilibria with the metal ions Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Mn(II), and Zn(II) are investigated potentiometrically. The stability constant values of the binary and ternary complexes formed in solution were determined and the binding centers of the ligands were assigned. The relationships between the properties of the studied central metal ions as ionic radius, electronegativity, atomic number, and ionization potential, and the stability constants of the formed complexes were investigated in an effort to give information about the nature of chemical bonding in complexes and make possible the calculation of unknown stability constants. Cu(II), Ni(II), and U(VI) complexes with NOCC are isolated as solid complexes and characterized by conventional chemical and physical methods. The structures of the isolated solid complexes are proposed on the basis of the spectral and magnetic studies. The ternary copper(II) complexes involving NOCC and various biologically relevant ligands containing different functional groups, as amino acids and DNA constituents

Aryl-2-sulfanylpropenoic acids reacted with acetohydrazonyl chlorides in refluxing absolute ethanol in the presence of equimolar amount of triethylamine forming (Z)-6- arylmethylidene- 1,3,4-thiadiazin-5-one derivatives. X-Ray study on the crystal of one of the obtained products was carried out.

A novel potyvirus we call Gazar virus Y (GVY) A novel potyvirus we call Gazar virus Y (GVY) was isolated from diseased carrot plants in Egypt. It produced symptoms similar to

Aryl-2-sulfanylpropenoic acids reacted with acetohydrazonyl chlorides in refluxing absolute ethanol in the presence of equimolar amount of triethylamine forming (Z)-6- arylmethylidene- 1,3,4-thiadiazin-5-one derivatives. X-Ray study on the crystal of one of the obtained products was carried out.

Objective: To evaluate local tumor control and survival data after transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) with different drug combinations in the palliative third-line treatment of patients with ovarian cancer liver metastases.Methods: Sixty-five patients (mean age: 51.5 year) with unresectable hematogenous hepatic metastases of ovarian cancer who did not respond to systemic chemotherapy were repeatedly treated with TACE in 4-week intervals. The local chemotherapy protocol consisted of Mitomycin (group 1) (n=14; 21.5%),

The transverse energy (ET) in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV nucleon -nucleon center- of-mass energy (sNN) has been measured over a broad range of pseudorapidity ( ) and collision centrality by using the CMS detector at the LHC. The transverse energy density per unit pseudorapidity (dET/d) increases faster with collision energy than the charged particle multiplicity. This implies that the mean energy per particle is increasing with collision energy. At all pseudorapidities, the transverse energy per participating nucleon increases with the centrality of the collision. The ratio of transverse energy per unit pseudorapidity in peripheral to central collisions varies significantly as the pseudorapidity increases from =0 to | |=5.0. For the 5% most central collisions, the energy density per unit volume is estimated to be about 14GeV/fm3 at a time of 1fm/c after the collision. This is about 100 times larger than normal nuclear matter density and a factor of 2.6 times higher than the energy density reported at sNN=200GeV at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.