Study of dependence between two types of most abundant natural clays in Bejaad province (Central Morocco) using a statistical approach

This work proposes the studying of characterization analysis of two natural Moroccan clays (RC and GC) in the same location from Bejaad (Province of Khouribga, Morocco) and to know the relationship dependence between them. The values obtained during the determination of a few parameters (density, pH, conductivity, dry matter - moisture content, organic matter-mineral matter) show that the two materials RC and GC studied have the same physical-chemical properties. The all characterization of the two clays was carried out by XRD, XRF, FTIR, SEM/EDX and TGA. The results obtained show that the two materials have very irregular and microporous structures, a heterogeneity of the pore forms and they are contain a mixture of Kaolinite, Illite, Quartz, Calcite, and Dolomite, with the presence of Hematite only in clay RC. On the other hand, The statistical approach applied to determine the dependence relationship between the two clays was based on two tests: Student's t-test (Comparison of two means for physical-chemical parameters) and Pearson's test (contingency table for XRF analysis) in order to prove that the two materials studied are the same chemical and physical-chemical characteristics

Coronavirus and Nutrition: Approach for Boosting Immune System in Morocco

The Covid-19 pandemic is a pandemic of an emerging infectious disease, the 2019 coronavirus disease Covid-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The essential protective measures recommended by WHO (2020) to limit the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) limited in the suppression of travel, quarantine and containment. In the first part of this review, we will examine the origin of the coronavirus, the modes of spread and their adverse effects on human health. We will include in our analysis the nutritional importance of the different approaches based on mechanisms to boost the immune system and therefore good viral defense. The immune system helps protect the host against environmental agents such as pathogenic microorganisms (bacteria, fungi and viruses), thus preserving the integrity of the organism. To preserve the defense mechanisms of the organisms, an adequate nutritional state must be maintained with adequate intakes of calories, vitamins, minerals and water which must be continuously provided by a healthy diet. In addition, it is necessary to have nutritional information that will help boost the immune system of people in the fight against Covid-19, nutritional diagnosis and early nutritional management of affected patients must be integrated into the overall therapeutic strategy. Several clinical data have shown that micronutrients like vitamins, including vitamins A, C, D, E, B12, B6 and folic acid; trace elements like iron, zinc, copper, magnesium, selenium, and omega-3 fatty acids like docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) play a major role in supporting the immune system

Production of drinking water through double treatment (conventional and demineralization) of Ait Massoud Dam water at the Kasba Tadla station (Morocco)

Drinking water program for the people of the Tadla plain and the phosphates plateau aims to secure in the short, medium and long- term the services of 1080,000 inhabitants, of which 530,000 are in rural areas. This program covers Tadla’s "central Morocco" treatment station with a flow rate of 1600 L/second, a demineralization station of 330 L/second and a 15000 m3 reservoir that is continuously fed. The raw water from the Ait Massoud dam undergoes several treatments at the station before being distributed in the drinking water circuits, including conventional treatment with its various stages (settling, coagulation, flocculation, and decantation) and bilayer filtration. Some of these treated waters then pass through the reverse osmosis to undergo demineralization. The demineralized waters are remineralized by lime water and are mixed with the filtered waters of the conventional station. The water produced at that station meets the requirements of the Moroccan standard NM 03.7.001 and the WHO guidelines, in addition a pH of 8 to 8.5; turbidity less than 0.3 NTU 95% of time and less than 0.5 NTU 5% of time; chlorides are less than 400 mg/l; iron, aluminum, and other components shall not exceed the maximum permissible values

Morphological and chemical characterization of carob pulps collected from four moroccan regions

The present research is included in a strategy of conservation and management of genetic resources for Carob tree (Ceratonia Siliqua L.) in Morocco. It has as one of its objectives, the evaluation of the morphological and chemical characteristics of four Moroccan ecotypes of carob pulps. The study related to morphological characterization reveals that there was a significant difference between the four populations from Meknes, Fez, Khemisset and Marrakech collected in 2018 and 2019. The lipid profile of carob pulp extracts analyzed by GC-MS is constituted of fatty acids, hydrocarbons, non-oxygenated compounds, sterols and tocopherols. The concentration of these compounds varies according to the population and year of collection. According to the results, the fatty acid contents are relatively high in 2019 with the dominance of palmitic acid. Additionally, our study approved the dominance of 1-Hexacosene, Tetracosane, Heptadecane. 1-iodo Hexadecane, 1-chloro Octadecane and 1, 54-dibromo Tetrapentacontane. Furthermore, it is noted that Stigmasterol, gamma-Sitosterol, beta-Sitosterol, alpha-Tocospiro A, alpha-Tocospiro B and Vitamin E are present in the samples. Moreover, the hierarchical analysis based on the results of the morphological and chromatographic characterization of the four populations’ pulps identify three groups. The first group included populations P3 and P4 respectively from Marrakech and Khemisset. The second group presented by the population P1 from Meknes. The population P2 from Fez constituted the third group

What effects does an organic amendment to olive waste have on the soil and crop yield?

Intensive agriculture or phenomena such as pollution, compaction, and/or erosion lead to a decrease in the amounts of organic matter of soils; thus, causing a decrease in their fertility. The use of an organic amendment in agriculture could combat soil degradation. In this sense, two organic amendments with olives waste (OW) and olive mill wastewater (OMW) have been manufactured.  The objective of this work is to examine the capacity of these amendments to improve soil quality in comparison with manure (M). Three types of soil were tested: the first has been amended for two years with a compost of similar composition (S1), the second not amended (S2), and the third corresponds to an agricultural soil that is amended with chemical fertilizer (S3). All the trials were carried out on two vegetable gardens: potato and radish. The ANOVA shows that the amendment effect was highly significant on all the physicochemical parameters studied except humidity. In conclusion, this product could be an alternative to chemical fertilizers and considered as a perennial solution adapted to the context of sustainable development to the recovery of olive waste

Agronomic valorization of the composts with olive waste

In the Mediterranean countries, olive waste, a co-product of the olive oil trituration process, presents a serious environmental problem because of their polyphenol charge, given the quantities rejected each year. In previous works, this waste has been co-composted with other substrates and has been transformed into non-phytotoxic substances in conformity with the French standard NFU44-051 due to their composition in nutritional elements like soluble sugars, proteins and mineral elements. This study examines the efficacy of these substances on radish and potato crops. To do this, seeds were sown on the plot. For each crop, 4 plots were planned: land amended with manure (M), NPK fertilizer (F), the vegetable water substance (VW) and the olive-pomace substance (OP) in addition to the vegetable water. The first three substances served as controls. A statistical study of correlation between the latter and those that characterize the soil after amendment was carried out.  The obtained results showed that there are two strong correlations between pH, organic matter, dry matter and soil moisture amended by the OW compost and, on the one hand, the morphological growth parameters of the two crops and, on the other hand, the parameters of their production

The Application of Particle Swarm Optimization Control in Pitch Wind Turbine

Recent advances in high-throughput technologies and an increased knowledge of biological systems have enabled the used in systems engineering and its applicability to command and control. In this work, we examine the applicability and performance of Particle Swarm Optimization -PSO-, a biologically inspired algorithm, for command and control. Particle swarm optimization –PSO- has been recently used for this reverse engineering task. In this paper, we introduce three scoring metrics for assessing the optimality of the solution found by PSO. We address the problem of finding blade pitch profiles for maximizing power production while simultaneously minimizing fatigue loads. While there are a number of publications where the speed control of a pitch regulated turbine, In this paper, we show how this problem can be solved using PSO optimization. The conception of controller strategies will address the following main principles: Optimization of power production with simultaneous load reduction of the major wind turbine components, and Adaptive control with respect to actual operational conditions. The simulation shows that the PSO controller can achieve better control performances than conventional pitch angle control strategies