Female religious agents in Morocco: Old practices and new perspectives

This doctoral thesis deals with female religious agents in Morocco’s past and present. More specifically, it investigates historical women saints and their reception today by Moroccan women in general and by Moroccan feminist activists in particular. Despite the fact that women saints impacted their communities and marked Moroccan history with their legacy, little is known about them. Their lives, practices, and participation in their religious communities and society are rarely studied by social scientists. This thesis addresses women saints’ construction of sainthood within the context of Islam as a religion and Sufism as the mystical dimension of that religion and the significance of this construction for broader discourses on gender and feminism in Morocco. The results of this research challenge the conventional image of passive Moroccan Muslim women and the depiction of women as victims of patriarchal religious ideologies. Instead, this thesis draws an alternative discourse that presents women, whether in the past or in the present, as religious agents, who are actively engaged in creating, re-defining, re-interpreting and transforming their religious roles both in the private and the public sphere

Analyse sedimentologique, structurale et lithogeochimique de la serie du Proteorozoique superieur (PII) de l'environnement de la mine d'argent d'Imiter (Anti-Atlas oriental, Maroc): implications geodynamiques

SIGLEAvailable from INIST (FR), Document Supply Service, under shelf-number : TD 80886 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc

Géochimie et signification géotectonique des volcanites du Cryogénien inférieur du Saghro (Anti-Atlas oriental, Maroc) Geochemistry and geotectonic significance of Early Cryogenian volcanics of Saghro (Eastern Anti-Atlas, Morocco).

Les groupes du Cryogénien inférieur de Sidi Flah, Kelaat Mgouna et Boumalne (Saghro, Anti-Atlas, Maroc) sont formés de dépôts turbiditiques et de laves interstratifiées, accumulés dans des bassins tectoniques. A Sidi Flah, les volcanites correspondent à des basaltes transitionnels à composition de tholéiites de rift initial (IRT) et à des basaltes alcalins de type basalte dmodifier letter vertical lineîles océaniques (OIB). A Kelaat Mgouna, il smodifier letter vertical lineagit de tholéiites continentales pauvres en Nb. A Boumalne, les basaltes ont une signature d'IRT. Ces formations volcaniques et sédimentaires constituent les éléments dmodifier letter vertical lineun rift naissant à lmodifier letter vertical lineaplomb de dômes thermiques, le long dmodifier letter vertical lineun axe SW-NE, le rift du Saghro. La déchirure continentale a eu lieu au début du Néoprotérozoïque lors de la dislocation du supercontinent Rodinia, dans un continent « ibéro-saharien » qui occupait une position frontale par rapport au craton ouest-africain alors situé au voisinage du pôle sud. La formation du rift du Saghro est contemporaine de lmodifier letter vertical lineouverture dmodifier letter vertical lineun domaine océanique représenté par les ophiolites de lmodifier letter vertical lineAnti-Atlas central et correspondant à l'extension de lmodifier letter vertical lineocéan Braziliano. The Early Cryogenian groups of Sidi Flah, Kelaat Mgouna and Boumalne (Saghro, Anti-Atlas, Morocco) are constituted by turbiditic deposits and interbedded lavas, accumulated in tectonic basins. At Sidi Flah, volcanics are transitional showing initial rift tholeiites (IRT) fingerprint and alkali basalts of oceanic island basalt (OIB) compositions. At Kelaat Mgouna, volcanics consist of low-Nb continental tholeiites. At Boumalne, basalts are of IRT composition. The volcanic and sedimentary formations belong to a nascent rift caused by thermal doming along a SW-NE axis, the Saghro rift. The continental break-up occurred in the early Neoproterozoic and during the Rodinia supercontinent dislocation, within a continent called “Ibero-saharian Craton” which was in front of the West-African Craton located near the South Pole. The Saghro rift is contemporaneous to the opening of an oceanic domain represented by Central Anti-Atlas ophiolites and related to the extension of the Brazialiano Ocean

Optimization of Extraction Conditions to Improve Chlorogenic Acid Content and Antioxidant Activity of Extracts from Forced Witloof Chicory Roots

Chlorogenic acids are major phenolic constituents in many herbal medicines and exhibit various bioactivities that explain the growing interest in extracting chlorogenic acids from biomass. In this context, the present study aims to maximize 3-O-Caffeoylquinic acid (3-CQA) and 3,5-O-di-caffeoylquinic acid (3,5-diCQA) contents from forced witloof chicory roots and to analyze the extraction kinetic modelling. First, the solid–liquid ratio, ethanol concentration, extraction time and temperature were studied. The extraction conditions were optimized to maximize the extraction of these compounds. The maximum yields reached 5 ± 0.11 and 5.97 ± 0.30 mg/g dry matter (DM) for 3-O-Caffeoylquinic acid and 3,5-O-di-caffeoylquinic acid, respectively, in less than 6 min at 70 °C. Extraction with water as a solvent was assessed with the aim of proposing a second greener and less-expensive solvent. This extraction is very fast from 90 °C, with a maximum of 6.22 ± 0.18 mg/gDM of 3-O-Caffeoylquinic acid, and instantaneous for 3,5-O-di-caffeoylquinic acid with a maximum of 6.44 ± 0.59 mg/gDM. In the second step, response surface methodology was employed to optimize the ultrasound-assisted extraction of antioxidants. The higher antioxidant activities were found at temperatures from 40 °C and at percentages of ethanol in the range of 35–70%