Apport de la prospection électrique à l'étude d'un glissement de terrain dans la ville de Constantine (Algérie). Electrical survey contribution to a landslide study in the City of Constantine (Algeria).

International audienceCet article présente les résultats d'une prospection électrique réalisée sur le glissement de terrain (février 1997) du Ciloc, situé à l'extension ouest de la ville de Constantine. Les sondages électriques (basés sur le dispositif de Schlumberger) montrent un ensemble argilo-marneux, renfermant des niveaux perméables. Ces niveaux favorisent l'alimentation en eau et les surpressions interstitielles déstabilisatrices. Les coupes géoélectriques obtenues traduisent un ensemble de mouvements emboîtés dont l'enveloppe inférieure est assimilable à un plan. Ce dernier se localise à une profondeur de 8 à 10 m. Les sondages électriques pluridirectionnels, permettant d'étudier l'évolution de la fissuration en profondeur, semblent confirmer cette profondeur du glissement. This paper presents the results of an electrical survey carried out on the Ciloc landslide (February 1997) in the west suburb of the City of Constantine. Vertical electrical soundings (measured after the Schlumberger pattern) show a marl-clay mass with permeable layers. These layers favour the flow of water and the destabilising interstitial overpressure in this soil mass. The obtained geo-electrical sections show a series of channelised movements with a lower limit which can be considered as a plane. The latter is situated about 8 or 10 m deep. The multi-directional electrical soundings allow the study of the development of fracturing at depth and seem to confirm this depth

Appropriateness of Algerian Higher Education Quality Assurance System to Educational Institutions: A Teaching staff’s Perspective

اقتصر الهدف من هذه الدراسة في معرفة مدى ملاءمة الخيارات التي اتخذتها السلطات الجزائرية في سبيل بناء نظام جودة التعليم العالي، المعلن عنها رسميا منذ يونيو 2008، لخصوصيات منظومة التعليم العالي بهذا البلد. وللحصول على نتائج تحقق الهدف المنشود، تم توجيه استبانة بصيغة استطلاع رأي لعينة مكونة من مائة (100) أستاذ جامعي، خلال الفترة الممتدة من (04 نوفمبر إلى 17 ديسمبر 2015)، ولتحليل النتائج المتوصل إليها من تفريغ بيانات الاستبانة، تم اللجوء إلى الأدوات الإحصائية المناسبة لمعرفة درجة رضا العينة المبحوثة عن الخيارات المتخذة من طرف السلطات العمومية في مجال ضمان جودة التعليم العالي، وذلك بالاعتماد على التكرارات والنسب المئوية. وقد توصلت الدراسة إلى نتيجة مفادها اتفاق أفراد العينة على أن خيارات تحديد أهداف ومجال ومراحل وكذا أجهزة تطبيق نظام ضمان جودة التعليم العالي بالجزائر، جاءت وفقا لمقترحات لجان وخبراء محليين ودوليين في هذا المجال، بما يلاءم خصوصيات هذه المنظومة، إلا أنه يمكن وضع نوع من التحفظ حول الخيارات المتعلقة بآليات نظام ضمان الجودة، والتي أقصت جملة من الآليات الفعالة كمرحلة مؤقتة، بحجة انعكاساتها السلبية على قطاع التعليم العالي في هذه المرحلة بصفة عامة.   الكلمات المفتاحية: تقويم، الجودة، ضمان الجودة، التعليم العالي في الجزائر، آليات ضمان الجودة، الاعتماد الأكاديمي. The aim of this study was to investigate the procedures taken by the Algerian authorities for establishing a quality assurance system in higher education, officially declared in June 2008, and to examine the relevance of such procedures to the higher education system in the country. To achieve this objective, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to a sample of 100 professors from the disciplines of economics, business studies and management sciences, during the period from 04 November to 17 December 2015. The study results revealed that the professors agreed that all the objectives, procedures, and scope of the quality assurance system were in line with the suggestions and recommendations of local and international expert committees.  However, mechanisms of implementing quality assurance system have excluded  certain important effective mechanisms temporality because they would have negative consequences on higher education in the current situation.    Keywords: Accreditation, Evaluation, Higher education in Algeria, Quality, Quality assurance,  Quality assurance mechanisms     &nbsp

Some new integral inequalities for negative summation parameters

In this paper, we prove some Hardy type and Hardy-Steklov type integral inequalities for two negative summation parameters and we deduce some well-known results with sharp constants

The Effects of Shot Peening on the Surface Characteristics of 35NCD16 Alloy Steel

Shot-peening is a surface mechanical treatment, widely used to treat metallic parts in the aerospace and automotive industries. This mechanical surface treatment should not be confused with other common applications of other peening treatments, oriented towards cleaning, preparation or surface finishing. Shot peening is a mechanical treatment used to improve the service life of metallic components, especially when they are submitted to cyclic loads. The effect of shot peening on the surface work hardening and residual stress profile of a 35NCD16 steel was studied in this work

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Contribution à l'étude des mouvements de terrain de la région de Constantine (Algérie)

Les formations argiIo~marneuses mio~pliocènes qui occupent de vastes étendues dans l'agglomération de Constantine, sont le siège de fréquentes manifestations d'instabilité, bien que la pente naturelle des versants soit faible (10 à 17 %). Dans cet ensemble argile-marneux, hétérogène à l'échelle métrique, la proportion de matériaux perméables est faible, mais certains niveaux de sables et de graviers ont une grande importance, car ils favorisent la mise en charge de l'eau dans le massif. Les informations apportées par les travaux de reconnaissance ainsi que la modélisation mécanique du phénomène sont concordantes et permettent de confirmer le rôle fondamental.Pas de résum

Dependence of cuprous oxide conductivity on metal doping: a hybrid density functional simulation

Multiple metallic elements were screened as doping agents to alternate conductivity in cuprous oxide (Cu2O). Energetic, charge transition levels and optical properties of Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Zn, Cd, Hg, Al, Ga, and In substitutionally doped Cu2O systems were investigated based on first principles methods. Results of formation energy calculation under both Cu-rich and Cu-poor conditions indicate the easy incorporation of 2A (Be, Mg, Ca, and Sr) group impurities into the crystal lattice of Cu2O under both conditions. However, 3A (Al, Ga, and In) group impurities could be incorporated only under Cu-poor conditions. While, the incorporation of Zn, Cd, and Hg in Cu2O is energetically less favorable under both conditions. The calculated charge transition levels of these dopants revealed an n-type conductivity. The calculated work functions show n-type to p-type surface inversion behavior for some doped systems. This can explain the p-type conductivity of Mg-doped Cu2O found experimentally. Furthermore, the optical properties of each system are calculated to investigate the effect of the introduced impurity on Cu2O. This study can help identify potential dopants to use for solar cell fabrication

Insight into the electronic, magnetic and optical properties of orthorhombic perovskite PrMn

Structural, electronic, magnetic and optical properties of orthorhombic perovskite PrMn1-xFexO3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) have been performed using first-principles density functional calculations. We focused on Mn-rich, Fe-rich and intermediate compounds in ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic spin ordering. Our results show the ferromagnetic semiconductor behavior in PrMn0.5Fe0.5O3 due to the Fe3+–O–Mn3+ ferromagnetic super-exchange interaction, while half-metallic antiferromagnetic behavior in Mn-rich and Fe-rich compounds due to the Mn–O–Mn and Fe–O–Fe interactions. The absorption coefficient $$\alpha \left(\omega \right)$$, reflectivity $$R\left(\omega \right)$$ and the refractive index $$n\left(\omega \right)$$ of pure and mixed PrMn1-xFexO3 perovskites are also discussed

Atténuation du ground roll par la transformée en ondelettes

National audienc