Qualité de la source Ain Hamma et effet du déversement de ses eaux sur la qualité physico-chimique et bactériologique des eaux de l’Oued Khoumane, Maroc

Les eaux de l’Oued Khoumane ont été prélevées mensuellement, entre août 2010 et mars 2011, au niveau de deux stations (amont et aval de sa confluence avec les eaux de la source thermale Ain Hamma MoulayIdriss) afin d’effectuer des analyses physico-chimiques et bactériologiques.L’analyse descriptive a montré que les eaux de l’oued subissent des variations physico-chimiques importantes après le mélange avec celles de la source : enrichissement avec les sels minéraux (chlorures et les sulfates), augmentation de la température, de la conductivité et de la dureté totale de l’eau. Pour la pollution organique, les eaux de la source sont moins chargées que celles de l’oued. En ce qui concerne la contamination bactériologique, les eaux de l’oued présentent un degré élevé de contamination fécale : Coliformes totales, Coliformes fécaux, Streptocoques fécaux et Entérocoques intestinaux. Ces eaux ne semblent pas être influencées par la qualité bactériologique des eaux de la sourcedont le degré de pollution est inférieur à celui de l’oued mais reste inquiétant et pouvant constituer un risque sanitaire pour les baigneurs.L’analyse explicative (Analyse en Composantes Principales) a montré une variabilité inter-stations et a corroboré les résultats de l’analyse  descriptive.Mots-clés : Oued Khoumane, source thermale, physico-chimie, bactériologie, Moulay Idriss Zerhoun, Maroc

THE SALT CRYSTALLIZATION WEATHERING OF BUILDING ROCKS OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES CALCARENITES OF NORTH-WESTERN MOROCCO (LIXUS, BANASA AND THAMUSIDA)

The archeological cities of north-western Morocco: Lixus, Banasa and Thamusida represent an international heritage, with a great social and cultural importance for the history of the country. This work is dedicated to study the salt crystallization weathering, reaching the building rocks of the monuments in order to preserve and restore them. These monuments show a variety of lithological facies implemented in its construction.The degradation of these materials is accelerated by climate influence of El Gharb and Prerif area, characterized by a high humidity and an important atmospheric and soil salinity. The most affected building rocks by the weathering are generally represented by limestones (calcarenites).When salt crystallizes in the pores of the rock after evaporation, the crystal dissociates the grains surrounding by expansion. Therefore, there is a loss of material. The accelerated aging test laboratory shows that calcarenites present the highest rate of weight loss among the samples of different lithologies. This is rendered in a significant susceptibility to degradation; a physical degradation by salt crystals expansion and a chemical degradation by a carbonates dissolution in the presence of the saline fog and a high temperature (50 °C).Lixus calcarenites are more resistant to weathering by salt, when compared to the calcarenites of the other two monuments

Biochemical characterization of a cefotaximehydrolysing &#946-lactamase encoded by a conjugative plasmid

During the nosocomials infections occurring in the intensive care unit of the military hospital of Tunis in 2005, the Enterobacter cloacae BW 1150 strain was isolated from a stool culture. This strain was found to have a high level resistance to broad-spectrum -lactams. Resistance profile against thevarious families of antibiotics was determined using the disc diffusion test. The minimal inhibitory concentrations values showed that this strain was resistant to the -lactams such as ampicillin and the extended spectrum cephalosporins (cefotaxime, ceftriaxon and cefpirome). Analysis of this strain by the disk diffusion test revealed synergies between amoxicillin-clavulanate (AMX-CA) and ceftriaxon, ceftazidime and cefotaxime. Cell sonicate of this isolate is very active against cefotaxime and showed aspecific activity (AS) of 7.54 U/mg for the same antibiotic. This activity was inhibited by the sulbactam and the clavulanic acid. Isoelectrofocusing methods revealed that the crude extract of the E. cloacae BW 1150 strain showed 1 - lactamase activity with an isoelectric piont (pI) of about 8. This activity was transferred by conjugation and was highly expressed in the transconjugant

Estabilización de aceite de oliva virgen extra ecológico con antioxidantes naturales de hojas de Artemisia absinthium obtenidos por maceración y extracción asistida por ultrasonido

Olive oil is the most popular product derived from Olea europaea L. due to its organoleptic characteristics and its beneficial effects on human health. Nowadays, there is a growing interest in olive oil enrichment with medicinal plants. In this regard, Artemisia absinthium L. is an edible source of antioxidants. The aim of the present study was to improve the oxidative stability and the nutritional value of Organic Tunisian Chetoui Olive oil by its enrichment with the phenolic compounds in Artemisia absinthium. The enrichment carried out by maceration and ultrasound-assisted extraction did not affect the organic criteria of olive oil. The comparative study, performed during one year of storage, showed that ultrasound-assisted extraction led to the lowest final peroxide and extinction coefficient values. At the end of storage, this method increased oleic acid content and biophenol contents. Furthermore, the anti-radical activities of enriched samples were higher than the control.El aceite de oliva es el producto derivado de Olea europaea L. muy popular debido a sus características organolépticas y sus efectos beneficiosos para la salud humana. En la actualidad existe un interés creciente por enriquecer el aceite de oliva con plantas medicinales. En este sentido, Artemisia absinthium L. es una fuente comestible de antioxidantes. El objetivo del presente estudio fue la mejora de la estabilidad oxidativa y el valor nutricional del aceite de oliva Chetoui tunecino orgánico mediante su enriquecimiento con compuestos fenólicos de Artemisia absinthium. El enriquecimiento realizado por maceración y extracción asistida por ultrasonidos no afectó a los criterios ecológicos del aceite de oliva. El estudio comparativo, realizado durante un año de almacenamiento, mostró que la extracción asistida por ultrasonidos condujo a los valores finales de peróxido y coeficientes de extinción más bajos. Al final del almacenamiento, este método aumentó el contenido de ácido oleico y de biofenoles. Además, las actividades antirradicales de las muestras enriquecidas fueron mayores que las del control

Analysis of a Hybrid Solar Collector Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT)

AbstractA solar hybrid photovoltaic thermal (PVT) is a set of combined solar collector, which consists of a photovoltaic module (PV) for the conversion of electrical energy and solar plan for the high efficiency thermal energy conversion, in the same frame.An attempt made to analyze the hybrid solar collector using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to simulate the PVT solar collector to a better understanding of heat transfer capabilities in this type of systems. In the present work, the fluid flow and heat transfer in the module are studied using the ANSYS14 software. The heat transfer phenomenon conjugate between the photovoltaic cells and the coolant is modeled using the FLUENT software. The transfer of heat by the solar radiation is not modeled; however, the effects of radiation are taken for consideration when calculating the conditions for heat flux limit for the collector region. The geometric model and fluid domain for the CFD analysis is generated using ANSYS software DesingModeler, mesh geometry is carried out by ANSYS Meshing Software

High-level cefotaxime-resistant Proteus mirabilis strain isolated from a Tunisian intensive care unit ward: CTX-M-8 extended-spectrum β-lactamase coproduced with a plasmid mediated AmpC lactamase

The aimed of this study was to determine the implication of the biochemical and the molecular mechanism and to describe the properties of an extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) CTX-M-8 which was reported for the first time in Africa. A clinical isolate of Proteus mirabilis FS6449 was isolated from a patient hospitalized at an intensive care unit of the Military Hospital in Tunisia in 2009. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined with the disk diffusion method according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines and revealed that this strain was resistant to expanded-spectrum β-lactams. Analysis of P. mirabilis FS6449 by double-disk synergy test yielded a positive result suggesting the production of ESBLs. Sonicate of the isolate hydrolysed cefotaxime and benzylpenicillin. Isoelectric focusing exhibited four β-lactamase bands of isoelectric points (pIs) 5.6, 6, 6.5 and over 7.6. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing experiments revealed the presence of four β-lactamase genes encoding TEM-2, CTX-M-8, TEM-24, and an AmpC enzyme. Among them, the genes encoding TEM-24 and an AmpC enzyme were transferred to the recipient by conjugation experiments.Keywords: Resistance, β-lactamase, Proteus mirabilisAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(21), pp. 3278-328

Effects of a moving membrane on the wake behavior of a circular cylinder

The aim of this paper is to investigate a novel technique to control the flow around a circular cylinder. This technique consists of putting a moving membrane stuck to the cylinder. The commercial software Ansys fluent 16.0 is used. The motion of the moving membrane is governed by a user-defined function. The numerical simulation is performed for the Reynolds number equal to Re=150. By changing the frequency of the oscillating membrane from f=0.1Hz to f=6.0Hz, we found that the drag coefficient is significantly affected and its curve shows a beat phenomenon for f around 4.5 Hz.Papers presented to the 12th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Costa de Sol, Spain on 11-13 July 2016

Using Serious Games to Train Adaptive Emotional Regulation Strategies

[EN] Emotional Regulation (ER) strategies allow people to influence the emotions they feel, when they feel them, how they experience them, and how they express them in any situation. Deficiencies or deficits in ER strategies during the adolescence may become mental health problems in the future. The aim of this paper is to describe a virtual multiplatform system based on serious games that allows adolescents to train and evaluate their ER strategies. The system includes an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) tool, which allows the therapist to monitor the emotional status of teenagers every day in real time. Results obtained from a usability and effectiveness study about the EMA tool showed that adolescents preferred using the EMA tool than other classical instruments.This study was funded by Vicerrectorado de Investigación de la Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain, PAID-06-2011, R.N. 1984; by Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain, Project Game Teen (TIN2010-20187) and partially by projects Consolider-C (SEJ2006-14301/PSIC), “CIBER of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition, an initiative of ISCIII” and Excellence Research Program PROMETEO (Generalitat Valenciana. Consellería de Educación, 2008-157). The work of Alejandro Rodríguez was supported by the Spanish MEC under an FPI Grant BES-2011-043316.Alcañiz Raya, ML.; Rodríguez Ortega, A.; Rey, B.; Parra Vargas, E. (2014). Using Serious Games to Train Adaptive Emotional Regulation Strategies. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 8531:541-549. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07632-4_51S5415498531Mennin, D., Farach, F.: Emotion and evolving treatments for adult psychopathology. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice 14, 329–352 (2007)Serrano, A., Iborra, I.: Informe violencia entre compañeros en la escuela. Spanish Version (2005), http://www.centroreinasofia.esInforme Cisneros X.: Acoso y Violencia Escolar en España, por Iñaki Piñuel y Araceli Oñate. Editorial IIEDDI, Spanish Version (2007)Werner, K., Gross, J.J.: Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology. In: Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology: A Transdiagnostic Approach to Etiology and Treatment. Guildford Press (2010)Berking, M., Wupperman, P., Reichardt, A., Pejic, T., Dippel, A., Znoj, H.: Emotion-regulation skills as a treatment target in psychotherapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy 46, 1230–1237 (2008)Shields, A., Cicchetti, D.: Emotion regulation among school-age children: The development and validation of a new criterion Q-sort scale. Developmental Psychology 33(6), 906–916 (1997)Gross, J.J., John, O.P.: Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85(2), 348–362 (2003)Gross, J.J., Levenson, R.W.: Hiding feelings: The acute effects of inhibiting negative and positive emotion. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 106, 95–103 (1997)Winn, et al.: The Effect of Student Construction of Virtual Environments on the Performance of High- and Low-Ability Students. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (2003)Pantelidis, V.: Reasons to use virtual reality in education. VR in the Schools 1(1) (1995)Playmancer, http://www.playmancer.euBen Moussa, M., Magnenat-Thalmann, N.: Applying affect recognition in serious games: The playMancer project. In: Egges, A., Geraerts, R., Overmars, M. (eds.) MIG 2009. LNCS, vol. 5884, pp. 53–62. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)Replay, http://www.replayproject.euFeldman, L.B., Gross, J.J., Conner, T., Benvenuto, M.: Knowing what you’re feeling and knowing what to do about it: mapping the relation between emotion differentiation and emotion regulation. Cognition and Emotion 15, 713–724 (2001