A labelled dataset to classify direct deforestation drivers from Earth Observation imagery in Cameroon.

Understanding direct deforestation drivers at a fine spatial and temporal scale is needed to design appropriate measures for forest management and monitoring. To achieve this, reference datasets with which to design Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches to classify direct deforestation drivers within areas experiencing forest loss in a detailed, comprehensive and locally-adapted way are needed. This is the case for Cameroon, in the Congo Basin, which has known increasing deforestation rates in recent years. Here, we created an Earth Observation dataset with associated labels to classify detailed direct deforestation drivers in Cameroon, which includes satellite imagery (Landsat and PlanetScope) and auxiliary data on infrastructure and biophysical properties. The dataset provides the following fifteen labels: oil palm, timber, fruit, rubber and other-large scale plantations; grassland/shrubland; small-scale oil palm or maize plantations and other small-scale agriculture; mining; selective logging; infrastructure; wildfires; hunting; and other.

[Epidemiology and diagnosis of urinary lithiasis: a cross-sectional study in a Cameroonian based population]. / Epidémiologie et diagnostic de la lithiase urinaire: étude transversale dans une population camerounaise.

Introduction: urinary stone is a multifactorial disease characterized by the presence of concretions in the urinary tract. The diagnosis of urinary lithiasis is based on clinical and imaging findings. The objective of this study was to determine the profile of patients suffering from urolithiasis in the city of Yaounde. Methods: this was a descriptive observational cross-sectional study with retrospective data collection. Patients with an age > 15 years and patients diagnosed with lithiasis confirmed by medical imaging were included in our study. The variables studied were sociodemographic, clinical and paraclinical. Results: a total of 120 patients were included in our study. The mean age was 40.46±12.62 years with extremes from 19 to 74 years. Male gender was predominant at 60.8% (n=73). Renal colic was the circumstance found in 67.5% (n=81). Physical examination was normal in 55.8% (n=67). Insufficient hydration was found in 45% (n=61) of cases. Abdominal scanner was the most performed examination in our study in 50.7% (n=61). The median stone density was 731 Hounsfield units [346; 1183.5]. The stones were predominantly located in the upper tract. The left renal topography was predominant in 35% (n=42) of cases. Urine culture revealed Escherichia Coli at 60% (n=15). Blood calcium, phosphorus and uricemia were requested in 15.8% (n=19), 0.8% (n=1) and 12.5% (n=15) of cases, respectively. The results were normal. In the absence of a laboratory specialized in biochemical analysis of calculi, a minority of patients (n=3) benefited from spectrophotometry. Conclusion: urinary lithiasis is a disease of men in their forties. Renal colic is the main revealing sign. The diagnosis is revealed by the abdominal scanner in half of the cases. Metabolic assessment and constitutional analysis of the calculus are still very rarely requested.

Surgical repair of a giant isolated inflammatory aneurysm of the left common iliac artery.

Isolated aneurysms of the iliac artery (IA) are very rare. Inflammatory aneurysms are also rare conditions, making the association rarer. Only four cases of isolated inflammatory IA aneurysms have been reported in the last decade. In this article, we report a case of a 62-year-old patient with a 13-cm large isolated inflammatory aneurysm of the left common IA associated with a 2.5-cm right common IA involvement. The patient presented with a left lower quadrant pain, a pulsatile mass with bruit, as well as a left hydronephrosis secondary to the ipsilateral ureter entrapment, and a motor and sensory deficit of the left lower extremity. An aortoiliofemoral prosthetic repair associated to a left to right ureteral transposition was undertaken with an approach including a laparotomy and bilateral femoral artery exposure. The postoperative period was uneventful. The case mentioned in this study is probably the largest IA aneurysm ever described.

Antimicrobial activities of the methanol extract, fractions and compounds from Ficus polita Vahl. (Moraceae).

BACKGROUND: Many plants of the family Moraceae are used in the treatment of infectious diseases. Ficus polita Vahl., an edible plant belonging to this family is used traditionally in case of dyspepsia, infectious diseases, abdominal pains and diarrhea. The present work was designed to assess the antimicrobial activity of the methanol extract from the roots of F. polita (FPR), as well as that of its fractions (FPR1-5) and two of the eight isolated compounds, namely euphol-3-O-cinnamate (1) and (E)-3,5,4'-trihydroxy-stilbene-3,5-O-ß-D-diglucopyranoside (8). METHODS: The liquid microdilution assay was used in the determination of the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimal microbicidal concentration (MMC), against seven bacterial and one fungal species. RESULTS: The results of the MIC determination showed that the crude extract, fractions FPR1, FPR2 and compound 8 were able to prevent the growth of the eight tested microorganisms. Other samples showed selective activity. The lowest MIC value of 64 µg/ml for the crude extract was recorded on 50% of the studied microbial species. The corresponding value for fractions of 32 µg/ml was obtained on Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans ATCC strains. The MIC values recorded with compound 8 on the resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA01 strain was equal to that of chloramphenicol used as reference antibiotic. CONCLUSION: The obtained results highlighted the interesting antimicrobial potency of F. polita as well as that of compound 8, and provided scientific basis for the traditional use of this taxon in the treatment of microbial infections.

Botanicals from the leaves of Acacia sieberiana had better cytotoxic effects than isolated phytochemicals towards MDR cancer cells lines.

The efficiency of cancer chemotherapy is seriously hampered by the development of resistance of neoplastic cells to cytotoxic agents. In the present investigation, the cytotoxicity of the dichloromethane-methanol (1:1) extract of Acacia sieberiana (ASL), fractions (ASLa-c) from the leaves and isolated compounds: chrysoeriol-7-O-rutinoside (1), luteolin-7-O-rutinoside (2), chrysoeriol-7-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside (3), Apigenin-7-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside (4), luteolin-3',4'-dimethoxylether-7-O-ß-D-glucoside (5) and luteolin (6) was investigated. The study was extended to the assessment of the mode of induction of apoptosis by ASL. The resazurin reduction assay (RRA) was used for cytotoxicity studies. Assessments of cell cycle distribution, apoptosis, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were performed by flow cytometry. A caspase-Glo assay was used to evaluate caspase activities. Botanicals ASL, ASLb and ASLc as well as doxorubicin displayed observable IC50 values towards the nine tested cancer cell lines while ASLa and compounds 1-7 had selective activities. The IC50 values ranged from 13.45 µg/mL (in CCRF-CEM leukemia cells) to 33.20 µg/mL (against MDA-MB-231-BCRP breast adenocarcinoma cells) for ASL, from 16.42 µg/mL (in CCRF-CEM cells) to 29.64 µg/mL (against MDA-MB-231-pcDNA cells) for ASLc, and from 22.94 µg/mL (in MDA-MB-231-BCRP cells) to 40.19 µg/mL (against HCT116 (p53-/-) colon adenocarcinoma cells) for ASLb (Table 1), and from 0.02 µM (against CCRF-CEM cells) to 122.96 µM (against CEM/ADR5000 cells) for doxorubicin. ASL induced apoptosis in CCRF-CEM cells, mediated by ROS production. Acacia sieberiana is a good cytotoxic plant and should be further explored to develop an anticancer phytomedicine to combat both sensitive and drug resistant phenotypes.

Antistaphylococcal Activity of Extracts, Fractions, and Compounds of Acacia polyacantha Wild (Fabaceae).

Acacia polyacantha is a medicinal plant traditionally used to treat livestock diseases and gastrointestinal infections; our study was undertaken to evaluate the antistaphylococcal activities of the methanolic leaf, bark, and root extracts, fractions, and compounds from Acacia polyacantha against a panel of 14 multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus bacterial strains overexpressing efflux pumps. The study was also extended to investigate two possible modes of action, that is, influence on bacterial growth kinetics and influence on proton-ATPase pumps, of the most active compound against a reference strain. Materials and Methods. The crude extracts after extraction were subjected to column chromatography. Antibacterial assays of extracts, fractions, and compounds alone and in the presence of efflux pump inhibitors were carried out using the broth microdilution method and the study of two mechanisms of action achieved by standard methods with the most active compound. Results. The phytochemical study of Acacia polyacantha leaves leads to the isolation of stigmasterol (1), ß-amyrin (2), 3-O-methyl-D-chiro-inositol (3), epicatechin (4), quercetin-3-O-galactoside (5), 3-O-[ß-D-xylopyranosyl-(1 ⟶ 4)-ß-D-galactopyranosyl]-oleanolic acid (6), 3-O-[ß-galactopyranosyl-(1⟶ 4)-ß-D-galactopyranosyl]-oleanolic acid (7) and that of leaves lead to the isolation of lupeol (8) 2,3-dihydroxypropyltetracosanoate (9), and methyl-gallate (10). Leaf, root, and bark extracts inhibited 92.85% (13/14), 92.85% (13/14), and 71.43 % (10/14) of the tested bacteria strains, respectively, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) varying between 16 and 1024 µg/mL. Fractions exhibited better activities compared to those of their extracts of origin, as their MICs ranged from 16 to 512 µg/mL, with fractions from leaves being more active than those obtained from barks. Compounds had varying activities; MICs varied from 16 to 512 µg/mL with compound 4 presenting the best activity as MICs ≤100 µg/mL were obtained against 11 of the tested bacteria. The activities of extracts, fractions, and compounds were improved in the presence of carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP) as an efflux pump inhibitor to as much as >128 folds. Meanwhile, in the presence of chlorpromazine as an efflux pump inhibitor, only the activity of compound 10 was improved on 10 of the tested bacteria strains. Compound 4 prolonged the lag phase of the growth kinetic in a concentration-dependent manner and equally inhibited the proton-ATPase pumps of the tested bacteria strains. Conclusion. The present study demonstrates the antistaphylococcal potential of Acacia polyacantha and its constituents to combat bacterial infections alone or in combination with efflux pump inhibitors.

Secondary metabolites with antiproliferative effects from Albizia glaberrima var glabrescens Oliv. (Mimosoideae).

A new 5-dehydroxyflavan, namely Albiziaflavan B or (+)-(2R, 3S, 4R)-3',4', 7-trihydroxy-4-methoxy-2,3-trans-flavan-3,4-trans-diol (1) was isolated from the root bark of Albizia glaberrima, together with six known compounds including three flavans: (+)-mollisacacidin (2), (+)-fustin (3) and butin (4); two steroids: chondrillasterol (5) and chondrillasterone (6), and a triterpenoid: lupeol (7). The structure of 1 was established by detailed analysis of its spectroscopic data, especially 1D and 2D NMR spectra, HRESIMS and CD data. Compounds 1-6 were assayed for their antiproliferative effects on two human cancer cells, HeLa at 50 µM (n = 2) and HL60 at 20 µM (n = 2). Compound 3 and 4 were the most active on HL60 with IC50 of 8.1 and 8.3 µM, respectively. Compound 6 was the most active with an IC50 of 4.6 µM on HeLa.

Albiziaflavane A: a new flavane from Albizia ferruginea (Mimosoideae).

A new polyhydroxylated flavane (1) was identified from Albizia ferruginea (Mimosoideae) along with 4',7-dihydroxyflavan-3,4-diol (2), julibrosides A1-A3 (3-5). The structures of the compounds were established based on their NMR and mass spectrometric data in conjunction with those previously reported in the literature. Compounds 1 and 5 displayed moderate antibacterial activities.