Mechanical properties of carbon black/poly (ε-caprolactone)-based tissue scaffolds

Carbon black (CB) spherical particles were added to poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) polymer to produce strong synthetic tissue scaffolds for biomedical applications. The objective of this paper is to study the mechanical behavior of CB/PCL-based nanocomposites using experimental tests, multi-scale numerical approaches, and analytical models. The mechanical properties of CB/PCL scaffolds were characterized using thermal mechanical analysis and results show a significant increase of the elastic modulus with increasing nanofiller concentration up to 7 wt%. Conversely, finite element computations were performed using a simulated microstructure, and a numerical model based on the representative volume element (RVE) was generated. Thereafter, Young's moduli were computed using a 3D numerical homogenization technique. The approach takes into consideration CB particles’ diameters, as well as their random distribution and agglomerations into PCL. Experimental results were compared with data obtained using numerical approaches and analytical models. Consistency in the results was observed, especially in the case of lower CB fractions

A PDE Method to Segment Image Linear Objects with Application to Lens Distortion Removal

In this paper, we propose a partial differential equation based method to segment image objects, which have a given parametric shape based on energy functional. The energy functional is composed of a term that detects object boundaries and a term that constrains the contour to find a shape compatible with the parametric shape. While the shape constraints guiding the PDE may be determined from object's shape statistical models, we demonstrate the proposed approach on the extraction of objects with explicit shape parameterization, such as linear image segments. Several experiments are reported on synthetic and real images to evaluate our approach. We also demonstrate the successful application of the proposed method to the problem of removing camera lens distortion, which can be significant in medium to wide-angle lenses

Educação emocional: uma estratégia para a mudança dos comportamentos ambientais na educação pré-escolar

A investigação feita neste estudo, recai sobre o desenvolvimento emocional nas crianças em idade Pré-Escolar, nomeadamente nos seus comportamentos menos adequados para com os seus pares e para com o meio ambiente. Desta forma, aborda-se a perceção desses comportamentos menos apropriados, a importância do desenvolvimento das competências emocionais e sociais, a responsabilidade do educador de infância na construção dessas competências e como essa construção influencia no desenvolvimento das boas práticas para com o meio ambiente. A pesquisa foi realizada num jardim de infância de cariz católico, onde a investigadora procurou responder à principal questão “De que forma as emoções estão relacionadas com a promoção de hábitos saudáveis para com o meio ambiente?” Sendo o objetivo geral da mesma (i) compreender até que ponto as emoções são um fator relevante para a promoção de um meio ambiente saudável e os objetivos específicos: (i) estabelecer uma relação intra e interpessoal positiva entre as crianças, os seus pares e os adultos; (ii) dinamizar diversas atividades promotoras do desenvolvimento emocional das crianças em relação com o meio ambiente; (iii) observar o grau de influência das emoções e as boas práticas ambientais e (iv) avaliar os níveis de importância do desenvolvimento emocional no comportamento para com os outros e para com o meio ambiente; Na realização desta investigação, optei por uma tipologia de investigação qualitativa, uma vez que esta interpreta a realidade a partir das perceções dos sujeitos investigadores, encontrando significados, através de observações e das narrativas verbais, recorrendo a uma entrevista semiestruturada à educadora e a um inquérito por questionário de respostas abertas a dez crianças. Foram feitas atividades, onde a educação emocional e a educação ambiental, estiveram relacionadas entre si, para perceber a possível mudança de comportamento das crianças. Com o desenvolvimento desta investigação, foi possível confirmar a importância que o desenvolvimento emocional tem na educação pré-escolar, bem como concluir que as atividades realizadas neste âmbito, permitem reforçar a afetividade, entre as crianças e das crianças para com o meio natural envolvente.The research of this study is about emotional development in pre-school age children, particularly in their less-appropriate behaviour towards peers and the environment. In this way, we address the perception of these less appropriate behaviors, the importance of the development of emotional and social skills, the responsibility of the child educator in the construction of these skills and how this construction influences the development of good practices for the environment. The research was carried out in a Catholic kindergarten, where the researcher sought to answer the main question: "How are emotions related to the promotion of healthy habits towards the environment?" The overall goal of which is to: (i) understand to what extent emotions are a relevant factor in promoting a healthy environment and the specific objectives: (i) to establish a positive intra- and interpersonal relationship between children, their peers and adults; (ii) to stimulate various activities that promote children's emotional development in relation to the environment; (iii) to observe the degree of influence of emotions and good environmental practices and (iv) to assess the levels of importance of emotional development in behavior toward others and towards the environment; In carrying out this research, I opted for a qualitative research typology, since it interprets reality from the perceptions of the research subjects, finding meanings, through observations and verbal narratives, using semistructured interview to the kindergarden teacher and a questionnaire survey of open answers to ten children. Activities were done, where emotional education and environmental education were related to each other to understand the possible change in behavior of children. With the development of this research, it was possible to confirm the importance that the emotional development has in the pre-school education, as well as conclude, that the activities carried out in this area, allow to strengthen the affection, between the children and the children to the natural surroundings

A new algorithm for approaching Nash equilibrium and Kalai Smoridinsky solution

International audienceIn the present paper, a new formulation of Nash games is proposed for solving general multi-objective optimization problems. The main idea of this approach is to split the optimization variables which allow us to determine numerically the strategies between two players. The first player minimizes his cost function using the variables of the first table P, the second player, using the second table Q. The original contribution of this work concerns the construction of the two tables of allocations that lead to a Nash equilibrium on the Pareto front. On the other hand, we search P and Q that lead to a solution which is both a Nash equilibrium and a Kalai Smorodinsky solution. For this, we proposed and tried out successfully two algorithms which calculate P, Q and their associated Nash equilibrium, by using some extension of Normal Boundary Intersection approach (NBI)

LE CONTROLE FISCAL DES PRIX DE TRANSFERT AU MAROC : APPROCHE COMPARATIVE AVEC LE REFERENTIEL OCDE

La fiscalité est considérée de plus en plus comme une préoccupation de haute importance pour les entreprises, notamment les multinationales qui s’installent dans les différents pays pour plusieurs raisons. Le présent article a pour objectif d’étudier la thématique des prix de transfert qui constitue une problématique tant pour la filiale que pour l’administration fiscale. Cependant les prix de transfert font systématiquement l’objet de redressement lors de la vérification de la comptabilité d’une filiale installée au Maroc par l’administration fiscale marocaine. A ce niveau plusieurs questions peuvent être posées : Quel est le référentiel international régissant la problématique des prix de transfert ? Quelle est la démarche et la logique marocaine en la matière, est-elle alignée avec la pratique internationale ? Comment l’administration fiscale marocaine procède-t-elle aux redressements des bases imposables dans le cadre d’un contrôle fiscal des prix de transfert 

The perception of distance learning by students in economic sciences: Case of the Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences Souissi

The spread of covid19 has affected human behavior, habits and attitudes. The field of education could not remain unaffected by this crisis as it has changed from face-to-face learning to distance learning.The Kingdom of Morocco established and declared a state of health emergency in order to deal with    the pandemic which led to the cessation of face-to-face courses. The Moroccan universities rushed to set up a distance learning system to ensure the continuity of education for all courses. Mohammed V University in Rabat uploaded more than 600 courses online in just a few days after the suspension of face-to- face classes. It later on deployed several interaction platforms to allow instant communication with students.Distance learning has been maintained for the start of the 2020/2021 academic year in all Moroccan universities. The purpose of this article is to study the perception of Mohamed V  University students to this mode of education. In this sense, a questionnaire was made available to students. It measures their degree of familiarization with computer tools, their attendance to courses and live sessions, their satisfaction with the teaching materials, among other things. The survey took place over a month. It concerned more particularly the students of the ULESS-Souissi. There were 850 responses. The study shows that 54.3% of the students surveyed declare an average degree of familiarization with computer tools while 83% of the students have followed the distance learning courses for the academic year 2020/2021. Students who have taken practical or tutorial sessions represent more than 60%. More than 50% of students use their smartphones. Moreover, 40% of students are not at all adapted to distance learning for the year 2020/2021

Disposal Behavior of Used Masks during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Moroccan Community: Potential Environmental Impact

The spread of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) levied on the Moroccan authorities to increase their mask production capacity, which reached up to 12 million facemask units produced per day. This increase in personal protective equipment (PPE) production and consumption is an efficient tool to address the spread of COVID-19. However, this results in more plastic and microplastic debris being added into the land and marine environments, which will harm the ecosystem, wildlife, and public health. Such a situation needs deep individual behavior observation and tracking, as well as an assessment of the potential environmental impact of this new type of waste. For this reason, we assessed the Moroccan population’s behavior regarding the use and disposal of facemasks and gloves. An exploratory survey was prepared and shared via social media and email with the population of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra and Casablanca-Settat regions. Additionally, we calculated the estimated number and weight of daily and weekly PPE used and generated by the studied regions. The survey showed that 70% of the respondents threw their discarded masks and gloves in house trash or trash bins after their first use, whereas nearly 30% of respondents admitted that they did not wear masks because they did not leave their homes during the lockdown, while from the 70% of facemask users, more than five million (equivalent to 40,000 kg) of facemasks would be generated and disposed of daily by the community of these regions, which presents 35% of the total engendered facemask waste in Morocco. Accordingly, the environment impact of facemasks showed that the greenhouse gas footprint is about 640 kT CO2 eq./year for the whole of Morocco, while the energy footprint is around 60,000 GWh/year. Furthermore, an urgent multidisciplinary environmental assessment of the potential impact of PPE must be conducted among the 12 Moroccan regions. This study demonstrated the real impact of the COVID-19 PPE on human behavior and the environment and suggests a need for providing new didactic management of facemasks and gloves

COVID-19 and myocarditis: a brief review

Cardiovascular complications (especially myocarditis) related to COVID-19 viral infection are not well understood, nor do they possess a well recognized diagnostic protocol as most of our information regarding this issue was derived from case reports. In this article we extract data from all published case reports in the second half of 2020 to summarize the theories of pathogenesis and explore the value of each diagnostic test including clinical, lab, ECG, ECHO, cardiac MRI and endomyocardial biopsy. These tests provide information that explain the mechanism of development of myocarditis that further paves the way for better management