Hassan Rammal

Phytochemical screening and antioxidant activity of Lebanese Eryngium creticum L.

Abstract Objective To determine the phytochemical screening and quantification of total phenolics contents in fresh Eryngium creticum (E. creticum) leaves and stems extract and to evaluate its total antioxidant activity. Methods Quantification of total phenolics contents in fresh E. creticum leaves and stems extract and evaluation of its total antioxidant activity, were done using the spectrophotometric analyses. Results The consumption of 100 g of fresh E. creticum leaves and stems could provide antioxidants equivalent to (78.50±0.80) mg of vitamin C and (50.42±0.50) mg of vitamin C, respectively. Conclusions From this study, it can be concluded that E. creticum can be interesting to prevent diseases directly linked to oxidative stress.

Antibacterial Activity of Two Lebanese Plants: Eryngium creticum and Centranthus longiflorus

Lebanon is one of many countries that are famous in their natural wealth and wide diversity. And due to the limited research regarding the traditional medicine worldwide, we aimed to conduct a study, for the first time, on two Lebanese plants: Eryngium creticum and Centranthus longiflorus L., in order to evaluate the antibacterial activity of the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of the different plant parts, during two harvesting periods, on five bacterial strains: Gram-positive and Gram-negative. It was observed that the aqueous extract showed a stronger antibacterial activity against S. epidermidis than the ethanolic extract in both plants and during the two harvesting periods. Regarding the Gramnegative bacteria, E. coli was highly resistant where it was not inhibited by E. creticum during the first period, however P. aeruginosa showed an alternating resistance and was stronger in the second period for E. creticum and in both periods for C. longiflorus. Further research studies need to be conducted in order to confirm the antibacterial effects of these two Lebanese plants.

Bioadsorption of Pb2+ and Cu2+ on Eucalyptus Camaldulensis Leaves

Herein, the efficiency of Eucalyptus camaldulensis leaves as biosorbent for lead and copper was investigated. The particle size distribution was determined by Granulometric analysis and the functional groups were identified by FT-IR spectroscopy. The effects of contact time, pH and initial metal ions concentration were investigated. The experimental kinetic data were well fitted by the pseudo-second order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm with a maximum adsorption capacity up to 71 mg g-1 and 37 mg g-1 for Cu2+ and Pb2+ respectively. The selectivity was examined in a binary ions solution where the adsorbent showed preference for lead over copper.

Removal of cadmium(II) ion from wastewater by using Lebanese Prunus avium stem as adsorbents

aDoctoral School of Science and Technology, Research Platform for Environmental Science (PRASE), Lebanese University, Lebanon, emails: nour.aliii2010@gmail.com (N. Al-Afy), hijazi_akram@hotmail.com (A. Hijazi), hasanrammal@hotmail.fr (H. Rammal), rabih.nehme@outlook.fr (R. Nehme), H.Annan@edst.edu.lb (H. Annan) bLaboratory of Materials, Catalysis, Environment and Analytical Methods (MCEMA), LEADDER Laboratory, EDST, Lebanese University, Lebanon, emails: tayssir.hamieh@ul.edu.lb, tayssir.hamieh@univ-poitiers.fr (T. Hamieh), reda_mohamad75@hotmail.com (M. Reda), joumana.toufaily@ul.edu.lb (J. Toufaily) cSchool of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University, Washington, DC, USA dInstitut de Chimie, des Milieux et des Matériaux de Poitiers, UMR CNRS 7285, Université de Poitiers 4, rue Michel Brunet TSA51106, B27, 86073 Poitiers cedex 9

REMOVAL OF HEAVY METALS FROM WASTE WATER BY USING A NATURAL AND BIODEGRADABLE ADSORBENT BASED ON PRUNUS AVIUM L. STEMS AS ADSORBENTS.

Ali Mcheik, Wassef El Khatib, Akram Hijazi*, Kamal Hariri, Mohamad Reda, Hassan Rammal Doctoral School of Science and Technology, Research Platform for Environmental Science (PRASE), Lebanese University, Lebanon. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History

REMOVAL OF Pb(II) FROM WASTEWATERS BY ACTIVATED CARBON FROM LEBANESE CYMBOPOGON CITRATUS (LEMONGRASS): A COMPARATIVE STUDY

This study is made to prove the efficiency of the activated carbon (AC) of Lebanese Cymbopogon citratus in the adsorption of lead (Pb(II)) from aqueous medium. The adsorption was found to be dependent on initial metal ion concentration, pH of the solution, temperature, contact time and adsorbent dose. The maximum adsorption capacity was found for the concentration of 450 mg/L, pH 4, temperature 25 o C, contact time 2h, and adsorbent dose 1g. The equilibrium adsorption was better described by Freundlich isotherm model rather than Langmuir model. The kinetic data were better represented by the pseudo-second-order than the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. Thermodynamic studies showed that the process was exothermic and spontaneous. The results of this study reveal that the activated carbon (AC) of Lebanese Cymbopogon citratus is a very effective and environmentally friendly adsorbent, with low cost for Pb (II) removal.

VALPROIC ACID INDUCES APOPTOSIS AND INCREASES CXCR7 EXPRESSION IN EPITHELIAL OVARIAN CANCER CELL LINE SKOV-3.

Domestic violence in itself is one of the most difficult, specific and wide-spread social-legal problems containing the number of signs of violation. Conflict directly concerns people connected with coexistence; it has the local, exclusive character and the fight against it is less effective in accordance with common practice of fight against the crime. Specificity of the fight against the crime of this category is expressed in both complexity of its revealing and in effective and lawful choice of coercive measures against it. The issue of domestic violence has been tabooed in many countries for a long time, because the disclosure of such issues was considered as interference in people’s private life. Although the society has gradually realized that the problem of domestic violence must not be ignored as violence endangers people’s health and life. Domestic violence is not only the problem of separate individuals, it has negative effect on the other members of the family, especially on minors and leads to distortion of their psyche and consciousness which, in its turn, leads to the formation of an unhealthy situation in the society.The author analyzes the results of the four stages of victimization surveys and Unified Crime Reports prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia in 2010-2013. The results of victimization surveys and statistics reports related to indexes and structure of crime became important after the parliamentary elections held in October 1, 2012, resulted by defeating of the ruling political party “National Movement” which was in power for the last 9 years. The new coalition “Georgian Dream”, headed by the billionaire B. Ivanishvili, radically changed political climate and announced the acceleration of democratization of the country and adopted the legislation decriminalization policy. According the new policy, the government of the country carried out the general amnesty, and released more than 60% of all prisoners from the custody. Such policy became the object of serious criticism from the part of the oppositions and some experts. They have expressed concerns about the criminal situation and decreasing level of security in the country predicted anarchy and disorganizations. This article is an attempt to assess the real situation in Georgia and the level of real threat to stability posed by criminality.Everything has his pros and cons. Debtor’s rights and obligations during court order enforcement, causes of problems that may arise. This problem is in the whole country, not just in one city or in one social class. A very large number of families from everywhere around Georgia have been affected. How and where it started will be discussed below in the text. Rights of creditors and debtors overlap in many aspects. We need to be very careful when sorting out this issue. We cannot under any circumstances make a decision with a benefit of one party while the other party will suffer losses. Georgian law on “Law Enforcement” does not support in any ways rights of debtors and all the procedures highlighted are towards forcing the debtor to pay off the debt. At this stage based on the current law, current socio-economic problems, statistics, ways on sorting out the problem, this object of studies is very important and has a very high intrinsic value in its theoretical part as well as in its practical part. If the right approach is taken it is possible to minimise the need to protect rights of creditors or debtors in the futures, because every party will be fully aware of their abilities and punishments for failures to fulfil their obligations, before signing the contractThe article includes detailed employment and uniploymant analysis in each municipality. In the analysis we use results from household survey conducted by the National Statistics Service. More specific information about the labour market at the municipal level was collected through cooperation with local municipalities. For the analysis we used information from municipalities’ web pages, telephone conversations with stakeholders, personal meetings with experts and so on. It should also be noted that a certain part of the data obtained from municipalities and from administrative territorial units have an approximate nature, but based on these information it is possible to gain some valuable conclusions and make assumptions. Terms and reality of employment analysis is carried out not only at the level of the municipality but on the country and regional ones as well.This project aims to apply learning of operations research and optimizing resources to practical cases. The aim of this problem is to maximize the the fairness of the schedule , while respecting all the constraints . In regards with the results obtained after some tests ILP has found a very good solution to our problem . Better values of the penalties associated to the shifts could be defined in order to represent the reality more accurately especially by taking into account the length of the shifts. The models can also be solved by means of optimization software. As shown in this paper, the current schedules can benefit from this work. My problem is NP-hard that it means unsolvable.My objective is to do the objective values ( diff =0.1) . The ideal must be 0 but it is impossible.there is shown in the table in 5 shifts , 20 nurses 10 weeks. We see that when we increase the number of shift the objective value is decreasing. It is fact that when we add a shift the software must do more iterations but the penalty is decreasing. We see that with the same number of iterations the penalty is smaller when we add a shift.For the welfare of modern society and any state`s correct function it is very important to have straightened working court system and to ensure every person`s court accessibility. Each step of court case management is detailed in civil procedure code. The legislation of civil procedure of Georgia foresees some mechanisms and opportunities of the restriction of court accessibility, which must be studied. The meaning of this study is stipulated by huge importance of court accessibility itself and by need of due caution during its restricting. The access to the court right is reserved not only by national, but also by international law, as evidenced by Article 42 of the Constitution [1], ``The UN Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms`` Article 6 [3]. As any study issue, this one also needs scientific, systemic approach. For fully demonstrating the issue it is advised to classify and define court accessibility restriction mechanisms. Here presented work is about this matter.The Administrative Law is a part of public law, as it is depended on the subordinate principle. It aims to realize public interest. On the other hand, Enforcement Law is part of administrative space, which regulates the rules and procedures of the enforcement process for different court’s decisions as well as other acts. As administrating effects our everyday lives, it is a public interest that this process should be kept in the legal borders. This is exactly what the Administrative Law is all about. It regulates the social relations in which were government and other administrative bodies play a major role. It is true that Enforcement Law provides us with the norms, rules and procedures of the legal administration, but it is still court’s responsibility to assess the legal quality of it. This is why we need effective justice, to have the competent court ruling practice and to enforce them properly.Collision issues are discussed in family law such as conditions of marriage, results of marriage, annulment of marriage, duty of maintenance, relations between parents and children, relations related to child’s origin, conditions of adopting, guardianship and tuition. I discuss issues of guardianship and tuition in mentioned work, which I think is very interesting and actual.

Determination of the Total Phenolic content, Total Flavonoid Content, Antioxidant Activity and Some Bioactive compounds of the Lebanese Eryngium creticum L.

Polyphenolic compounds are bioactive substances widely distributed in the plant kingdom. They act as natural antioxidants and their presence contributes to the color, flavor, and aroma of food. Therefore, they are considered dietary antioxidants with interesting benefits to health. In this article the extraction of total phenolics, total Flavonoids and antioxidants activity from Eryngium creticum was determined after obtaining the plant extracts by conventional and non-conventional extraction techniques. Also this study aims to determine the bioactive constituents present in E. creticum extracts by using GC-MS method. The results obtained show that microwave assisted extraction is the best technique used for the extraction of phenolic compounds and flavonoids from E. creticum giving a yield of 34.46 µg/mL and 21.05 µg/mL respectively. However, the antioxidants activity, evaluated by the DPPH assay was low in all the extraction techniques. Also the results showed the presence of 9 fatty acid derivatives, most of them have therapeutic effects on human health. These results explain the use of E. creticum in traditional medicine to treat various diseases.

Notes ethnobotanique et phytopharmacologique de Ribes nigrum L.

Ribes nigrum est une plante originaire d’Europe, qui appartient à l’ordre des Saxifragales et à la famille des Grossulariacées. Il est connu sous plusieurs noms vernaculaires dont le cassis, le gadellier noir, le groseillier noir. Il est cultivé sous les climats tempérés et est parfois naturalisé en Amérique du Nord autour de sites anciennement habités. En Europe, il colonise volontiers les aulnaies humides. Il préfère les lieux humides et ombragés et les sols légers. Il produit de petites baies noires (bleu très foncé) riches en tanins et acidulées qui donnent un jus épais et violacé. Ribes nigrum est un arbrisseau touffu, vivace, de 1 m à 1,50 m de haut. Le fruit Ribes nigrum est une baie globuleuse, d’un noir foncé et terne. La pulpe est légèrement aigrelette, tandis que la peau a une odeur aromatique. Ribes nigrum n’est pas indigène à nos contrées, mais il est de plus en plus cultivé et est parfois naturalisé aux environs des jardins. D’autres espèces de groseilliers habitent les bois du Québec et pourraient servir de remèdes, mais on croit que celles qui portent des baies rouges sont moins efficaces médicinalement que celles qui portent des baies noires. Nom anglais : Black currant. Parties utilisées : les feuilles, les baies et leur jus, l’huile tirée des pépins, les bourgeons.