The impact of safety culture dimensions on workplace accidents: an application in the Moroccan automotive industry

Introduction: There is a general accord that safety culture is multidimensional. but limited research and publications are there about those dimensions. Almost one-third of the publications presenting safety culture definitions do not discuss the safety culture dimension nor the relationship between the safety culture dimensions and workplace accidents.  To further understand the factors influencing this correlation. it appeared appropriate in this situation to investigate the relationship between the safety culture dimensions and occupational accidents. This study aims to identify the safety culture dimensions in the automotive industry in Morocco and its relations with occupational accidents.   Methods: A study was done with 35 of the largest automotive companies in Morocco. the effects of Safety Culture dimensions on workplace accidents in the automotive industry were examined based on the literature review. and a measurement questionnaire that was created with a sample of numerous automotive workers for 2 months in the winter semester of November and December 2022. Results: The results highlight that the safety culture dimensions have a strong influence on avoiding accidents especially the safety culture's dimensions which present 40%. In addition, the COVID-19 period had a big impact on the number of occupational accidents in the automotive sector. 40.54% of these occupational accidents occurred between 2020 and 2022. Conclusion: Based on the results gained from the Questionnaire the common safety culture dimensions are employees’ attitudes or unsafe behaviors, lack of staff participation, and inadequate supervision

A Review on Antibacterial Activity of Nanoparticles

The increasing resistance of bacteria to antibiotic agents is a main global public health problem. The use of nanoparticles is one of the promising ways to overcome microbial resistance to antimicrobial agents. Metal nanoparticles are increasingly used to target bacterial strains. Advances in nanotechnology, in particular the ability to synthesize nanoparticles of specific size and shape, are likely to lead to the development of new antibacterial agents. The antibacterial activities of nanoparticles are largely influenced by their sizes and large surface area/mass ratio. The antibacterial mechanisms of nanoparticles are poorly understood, but the currently accepted mechanisms include oxidative stress induction, metal ion release, and non-oxidative mechanisms. In this review, we have focused on the antibacterial activity of nanoparticles and their main mechanisms of action against bacteria. We also discuss the recent therapeutic strategies to control bacterial virulence and biofilm formation by targeting quorum sensing in bacteria without impeding bacterial growth. On the other hand, we reviewed five widely used databases of nanoparticles, aiming to provide the nanoscience community with valuable information about the specific content and function of these databases

Ten Simple Rules for Organizing a Virtual Conference—Anywhere

Etienne P. de Villiers and Sheila C. Ommeh are ILRI author

Indicators for monitoring and assessment of Environmental management systems in ports

Ports are no longer content with being the connection of ocean and land transportation, of which they are keys in international logistics and supply chains. Ports have also become industrial production areas. As ports continue to evolve as production areas, they are becoming significant sources of water pollution, solid waste, and noise and air pollution. Due to this increase in environmental impacts, the majority of the world ports have made commitments to development of proactive procedures for a sustainable development by adopting an environmentally responsible approach to preserve and protect the environment. This is despite the need of a diagnostic tool which allows monitoring and evaluation of the progress of environmental management in the different sectors of the port. The present study evaluated the different activities and environmental aspects related to the shipping industry and identified the main indicators to assess and develop an environmental management system (EMS) in order to achieve sustainable development

Detection of Wolbachia Infections in Natural and Laboratory Populations of the Moroccan Hessian Fly, Mayetiola destructor (Say)

Mayetiola destructor (Hessian fly) is a destructive pest of wheat in several parts of the world. Here, we investigated the presence of reproductive symbionts and the effect of the geographical location on the bacterial community associated to adult Hessian flies derived from four major wheat producing areas in Morocco. Using specific 16S rDNA PCR assay, Wolbachia infection was observed in 3% of the natural populations and 10% of the laboratory population. High throughput sequencing of V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene revealed that the microbiota of adult Hessian flies was significantly influenced by their native regions. A total of 6 phyla, 10 classes and 79 genera were obtained from all the samples. Confirming the screening results, Wolbachia was identified as well in the natural Hessian flies. Phylogenetic analysis using the sequences obtained in this study indicated that there is one Wolbachia strain belonging to supergroup A. To our knowledge, this is the first report of Wolbachia in Hessian fly populations. The observed low abundance of Wolbachia most likely does not indicate induction of reproductive incompatibility. Yet, this infection may give a new insight into the use of Wolbachia for the fight against Hessian fly populations

Exploring natural products as multi-target-directed drugs for Parkinson’s disease: an <i>in-silico</i> approach integrating QSAR, pharmacophore modeling, and molecular dynamics simulations

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain. Current treatments provide limited symptomatic relief without halting disease progression. A multi-targeting approach has shown potential benefits in treating neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we employed in silico approaches to explore the COCONUT natural products database and identify novel drug candidates with multi-target potential against relevant Parkinson’s disease targets. QSAR models were developed to screen for potential bioactive molecules, followed by a hybrid virtual screening approach involving pharmacophore modeling and molecular docking against MAO-B, AA2AR, and NMDAR. ADME evaluation was performed to assess drug-like properties. Our findings revealed 22 candidates that exhibited the desired pharmacophoric features. Particularly, two compounds: CNP0121426 and CNP0242698 exhibited remarkable binding affinities, with energies lower than −10 kcal/mol and promising interaction profiles with the chosen targets. Furthermore, all the ligands displayed desirable pharmacokinetic properties for brain-targeted drugs. Lastly, molecular dynamics simulations were conducted on the lead candidates, belonging to the dihydrochalcone and curcuminoid class, to evaluate their stability over a 100 ns timeframe and compare their dynamics with reference complexes. Our findings revealed the curcuminoid CNP0242698 to have an overall better stability with the three targets compared to the dihydrochalcone, despite the high ligand RMSD, the curcuminoid CNP0242698 showed better protein stability, implying ligand exploration of different orientations. Similarly, AA2AR exhibited higher stability with CNP0242698 compared to the reference complex, despite the high initial ligand RMSD due to the bulkier active site. In NMDAR, CNP0242698 displayed good stability and less fluctuations implying a more restricted conformation within the smaller active site of NMDAR. These results may serve as lead compounds for the development and optimization of natural products as multi-target disease-modifying natural remedies for Parkinson’s disease patients. However, experimental assays remain necessary to validate these findings. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.</p

Characterization of the Bacterial Profile from Natural and Laboratory <i>Glossina</i> Populations

Tsetse flies (Glossina spp.; Diptera: Glossinidae) are viviparous flies that feed on blood and are found exclusively in sub-Saharan Africa. They are the only cyclic vectors of African trypanosomes, responsible for human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) and animal African trypanosomiasis (AAT). In this study, we employed high throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene to unravel the diversity of symbiotic bacteria in five wild and three laboratory populations of tsetse species (Glossina pallidipes, G. morsitans, G. swynnertoni, and G. austeni). The aim was to assess the dynamics of bacterial diversity both within each laboratory and wild population in relation to the developmental stage, insect age, gender, and location. Our results indicated that the bacterial communities associated with the four studied Glossina species were significantly influenced by their region of origin, with wild samples being more diverse compared to the laboratory samples. We also observed that the larval microbiota was significantly different than the adults. Furthermore, the sex and the species did not significantly influence the formation of the bacterial profile of the laboratory colonies once these populations were kept under the same rearing conditions. In addition, Wigglesworthia, Acinetobacter, and Sodalis were the most abundant bacterial genera in all the samples, while Wolbachia was significantly abundant in G. morsitans compared to the other studied species. The operational taxonomic unit (OTU) co-occurrence network for each location (VVBD insectary, Doma, Makao, and Msubugwe) indicated a high variability between G. pallidipes and the other species in terms of the number of mutual exclusion and copresence interactions. In particular, some bacterial genera, like Wigglesworthia and Sodalis, with high relative abundance, were also characterized by a high degree of interactions