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The scientific article addresses the topic of innovation in startups, focusing on a theoretical aspect that includes key definitions of innovation concepts and its types. It also involves a practical study with a significant analytical questionnaire. The article delves into the challenges and opportunities faced by these companies in the context of innovation, Innovation are a fundamental element in the entrepreneurship of startups, contributing to their distinctiveness and success. Additionally, it presents survey results as a means to analyze the level of adoption and interaction with innovation concepts within the field of its production.

The efficacy and side effects of radiotherapy (RT) depend on parameters like dose and the volume of irradiated tissue. RT induces modulations of the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) that are dependent on the dose. Low dose RT (LDRT, i.e., single doses of 0.5–2 Gy) has been shown to promote immune infiltration into the tumor. Here we hypothesize that partial tumor irradiation combining the immunostimulatory/non-lethal properties of LDRT with cell killing/shrinkage properties of high dose RT (HDRT) within the same tumor mass could enhance anti-tumor responses when combined with immunomodulators. In models of colorectal and breast cancer in immunocompetent female mice, partial irradiation (PI) with millimetric precision to deliver LDRT (2 Gy) and HDRT (16 Gy) within the same tumor induces substantial tumor control when combined with anti-PD1. Using flow cytometry, cytokine profiling and single-cell RNA sequencing, we identify a crosstalk between the TIME of the differentially irradiated tumor volumes. PI reshapes tumor-infiltrating CD8 + T cells into more cytotoxic and interferon-activated phenotypes but also increases the infiltration of pro-tumor neutrophils driven by CXCR2. The combination of the CXCR2 antagonist SB225002 with PD1 blockade and PI improves tumor control and mouse survival. Our results suggest a strategy to reduce RT toxicity and improve the therapeutic index of RT and immune checkpoint combinations. Low dose-radiation therapy (LDRT) can promote anti-tumor immune responses. Here the authors propose to combine the immunostimulatory properties of LDRT with the cell killing/shrinkage properties of high dose RT within the same tumor mass as a strategy to optimize RT-induced anti-tumor immune responses.

Organogenesis is an in vitro regeneration method used for rapid and large-scale propagation of a number of plant species. During the last decade, organogenesis has been used as a tool to rehabilitate date palm groves in Morocco, and resulted in the production of millions of date palm plantlets. In the present study, the production cost of date palm plantlets (cv. Mejhoul) obtained through direct organogenesis was estimated. The organogenesis protocol used was based on previously published studies. The cost analysis included the costs of offshoots, culture medium components, chemicals, equipment maintenance, water, fuel and electricity consumption as well as staff salaries and all the consumables used during in vitro work and plantlet acclimatization. The hardware (infrastructure, laboratory equipment and vessels) cost was not included. During the production process, the loss of plant material due to endophytic bacteria, tissue browning and hyperhydricity was taken into account. At the end of the organogenesis process, an average of 947.6 plantlets were produced from one offshoot. It was found that staff salaries (46.05%) and electricity consumption (26.16%) account for the majority of expenses. The production cost of one plantlet was estimated to be US$ 3.84. The findings of the present study highlight the economic feasibility of using organogenesis for date palm propagation.Key messageThe production cost of date palm plantlets through organogenesis was estimated. The economic feasibility of this technique was highlighted when compared with conventional propagation through offshoots.

This research investigates the potential of using raw orange peel (ROP) as an efficient low-cost biosorbent for the adsorption of two disperse dyes: Bemacron Blue RS 01 (BB-RS01) and Dianix Yellow SE - G (DY-SEG) from synthetic aqueous solutions. ROP has been experimented in several studies for its potential in removing acid and basic dyes from solutions. This work focused on the test of its efficiency for disperse dyes adsorption. The goal is to explore a novel low-cost biosorbent; as an alternative to activated carbon; for treating disperse dyes present in textile effluents before their discharge into the environment. After characterizing the biosorbent using different methods including FTIR, TGA, SEM, and pHzpc determination, dye sorption kinetics, and equilibrium isotherms were studied under batch conditions. The effects of factors such as contact time (0–480 min), initial dye concentration (50–300 mg/L), pH of the solution, temperature (25–45°C), mass (1–5 g), and biosorbent particle size on dye sorption kinetics were examined. Dye uptake was found to be dependent on contact time, initial dye concentration, pH, temperature of solution, biosorbent mass, and particle size. For the two dyes investigated, the adsorption process was an endothermic phenomenon and the findings from kinetic studies showed that the pseudo-second-order rate kinetics successfully describe the overall adsorption process ( R 2  > 0.99). The multistage diffusion of dyes on ROP particles indicated that intraparticle diffusion was not the only mechanism for dye adsorption process. The Langmuir model provided a better fit (0.98 >  R 2  > 0.97) of the experimental equilibrium data compared to the Freundlich model (0.97 >  R 2  > 0.96). The FTIR spectrum of ROP after dye adsorption suggests that the uptake of dyes by ROP is probably attributed to the stretching mode of the hydroxyl (OH) and carboxylic (COOH) groups of the material. SEM photography showed the formation of crater-shaped cavities in the skin structure of ROP after dye adsorption indicating the presence of dyes on the biosorbent. For both dyes investigated, ROP proved to be an efficient promising biosorbent for removing dyestuffs from synthetic aqueous solutions, with maximum dye adsorption capacities ( q max ) of 108.58 and 88.89 mg/g for BB-RS01 and DY-SEG respectively. The order of affinity of ROP for dye uptake was found to be BB-RS01 > DY-SEG. The use of ROP for treating textile effluents offers economic benefits for industries. This approach can reduce expenses for manufacturers and promote the use of local materials at a lower cost for water treatment.

The aim of this study was to present a novel framework for the analysis of the impact of murmurs on heart sounds recorded in real clinical environment. Heart sound records were rigorously selected from the PASCAL dataset using an automated signal quality assessment algorithm. Recordings from 159 patients were analyzed for spectral differences in normal, systolic and diastolic murmurs using a Multiple signal classification algorithm pseudo-spectrum. The spectral features evaluated for the first heart sound (S1) and the second heart sound (S2) were: energy, frequency and frequency density. Results show increased energy of fundamental heart sounds in systolic and diastolic murmurs similarly, whilst frequency is decreased inversely. Furthermore, the frequency density of the first and second heart sounds decreases in murmurs and it is shown to be the lowest in systolic murmur cases.

Argania spinosa (L.) Skeels is an endangered plant species endemic to Morocco. In recent years, attempts to develop in vitro regeneration systems for this species were made. However, rooting and acclimatization of in vitro plants have been a bottleneck for successful propagation. In the present study, the effects of different concentrations of auxins, putrescine, silver nitrate (AgNO3) and ammonium nitrate on the in vitro rooting of adventitious shoots of two argan genotypes “Mejji” and “R’zwa”, were evaluated. The highest rooting percentages (86.6% in “Mejji” and 84.4% in “R’zwa”) were observed on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium modified by reducing the ammonium nitrate concentration and supplemented with 1.5 mg L−1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), 0.5 mg L−1 1-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), 2 mg L−1 AgNO3 and 160 mg L−1 putrescine. This medium resulted in the development of a good root system after only 10 days of culture. Plantlet acclimatization was carried out using different substrate mixtures, and high survival rates (100%) were observed when the substrate contained either peat alone or a sand–peat mixture (1:1, w/w). The high percentages of rooting and acclimatization reported in the present study are of high importance for rapid and large-scale propagation of this endangered species.

As part of the palm grove rehabilitation and extension programs, and given the commercial importance of the Moroccan cultivar Mejhoul at the international market, Morocco has launched during the last decade, a large-scale production project of tissue cultured date palms. This study aimed to analyze the cost of production of tissue cultured date palms (cv. Mejhoul) produced in the commercial laboratories of Morocco. The micropropgation method used is direct organogenesis. It consists of several stages: initiation of meristematic buds, shoot bud multiplication, shoot elongation and rooting and then plantlet acclimatization. The study was based on surveys with commercial laboratories and on an engineering system that describes the production process of date palm tissue culture. The production cost was evaluated and different scenarios were considered depending on the losses caused by microbial contamination and during acclimatization. The findings showed that under normal circumstances the production cost of a tissue cultured date palm cv. Mejhoul is around 20.16 US$. This cost includes fixed and running costs. Labor cost was found to be the major component (23.34%) of the total cost, followed by energy (5.95%), chemicals and the inputs used in greenhouses and shade houses. The overall business was found to be very profitable but also risky because the production cost will drastically increase when the contamination rate exceeds 50%. During acclimatization, the survival rate must exceed 55% in order to ensure a reasonable profitability of such a project.Key messageThe production cost of tissue cultured date palm plants (cv. Mejhoul) was estimated, the economic profitability of a prototype commercial laboratory was determined and different risk factors were analyzed.

We identified two strains of endophytic bacteria associated with date palm explants by 16S rRNA gene amplification and sequencing, and we explored different approaches to control them. Based on their 16S sequences, the two isolates were identified as Microbacterium testaceum and Serratia marcescens . Antibacterial activity of essential oils, methanolic and aqueous extracts, from seven plant species against these endophytic bacteria was studied using different methods. The essential oils and the aqueous extracts of Artemisia herba-alba, Rosmarinus officinalis and Thymus satureioides inhibited the growth of both isolates through the disc diffusion method. The inhibition zones ranged from 18 to 31.5 mm and from 5 to 7 mm for essential oils and aqueous extracts, respectively. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bacteriocidal concentration (MBC) values ranged from 0.025 to 0.033% and 0.033 to 0.05%, respectively. None of the methanolic extracts had any activity against the bacteria. The incorporation of the extracts into the culture medium showed different results depending on culture phase. During the induction phase, none of the extracts was able to inhibit the bacterial growth without causing phytotoxicity. During shoot bud multiplication, only the essential oils of A. herba-alba at the concentration of 0.1% inhibited the bacterial growth without causing phytotoxicity. Furthermore, the explants showed normal growth with an average number of 13.1 shoot buds per explant. The use of extract-impregnated plugs showed no inhibitory activity against the bacteria, whereas immersing explants in the antibacterial solutions caused browning and death of plant tissues. Key message The endophytic bacteria observed during date palm organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis were identified for the first time ever using 16S sequencing, and a new biological and efficient approach to control it was developed.

The effects of various culture conditions on shoot elongation, rooting and plantlet acclimatization were tested. Adventitious shoots obtained through direct organogenesis of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cv. ‘Mejhoul’ were used as explants. The effects of culture medium texture, plant growth regulators, polyvinylpyrrolidone, adenine, myo-inositol, L-glutamine, and carbon source on in vitro plantlet quality and subsequent acclimatization were evaluated. The most effective culture medium was the semi-solid and half-strength Murashige and Skoog medium without plant growth regulators, supplemented with 30 g L-1 sucrose. After 3 months of culture on this medium, the average shoot length was 13.6 cm, the average number of adventitious roots per shoot was 3.6, and the average root length was 3.85 cm. The survival rate of these plantlets in acclimatization was 90%. On the other hand, liquid medium, plant growth regulators, polyvinylpyrrolidone, adenine, myo-inositol and L-glutamine did not increase the survival rate during acclimatization. Along with these experiments, some physiological characteristics of the plantlets obtained in vitro were also determined. Chlorophyll content and fluorescence, foliar surface and stomatal conductance were measured after 3 months of culture in each medium. The ranges were as follows: Chlorophyll content, 11.7-31.8 CCI; chlorophyll fluorescence, 0.633-0.795; foliar surface, 7.35-13.29 cm2; and stomatal conductance, 10.3-36.0 mmol m-2 s-1. Interestingly, positive correlations between the physiological characteristics of the plantlets and their survival percentage in the glasshouse were revealed. The findings of this investigation will be valuable for large-scale and cost-saving production of date palm cv. ‘Mejhoul’ plants.

Electromyogram signal (EMG) provides an important source of information for the diagnosis of neuromuscular disorders. In this study, we proposed two methods of analysis which concern the bispectrum and continuous wavelet transform (CWT) of the EMG signal then a comparison is made to select which one is the most suitable to identify an abnormality in biceps brachii muscle in the main purpose is to assess the pathological severity in bifrequency and time-frequency analysis applying respectively bispectrum and CWT. Then four time and frequency features are extracted and three popular machine learning algorithms are implemented to differentiate neuropathy and healthy conditions of the selected muscle. The performance of these time and frequency features are compared using support vector machine (SVM), linear discriminate analysis (LDA) and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) classifier performance. The results obtained showed that the SVM classifier yielded the best performance with an accuracy of 95.8%, precision of 92.59% and specificity of 92%. followed by respectively KNN and LDA classifier that achieved respectively an accuracy of 92% and 91.5%, precision of 92% and 85.4%, and specificity of 92% and 83%.