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AbstractIn the landfill bottom liners design process, geotechnical tests of long duration time are often conducted to ensure the presence of reactive clays and to assess their hydromechanical properties. This study aims to show the interest of the rheometry of clayey suspensions as an alternative tool for identifying clays and determining the shear strength of bottom liners. An experimental protocol, using a six-speed rotary viscometer, was first implemented on bentonite suspensions on the one hand and kaolinite suspensions on the other. The results show that to have similar shear strengths (between 1.0 and 25.4 Pa), the concentration ranges used for these two types of suspensions must be totally different: between 600 to 1200 g/L for kaolinite and 30 to 90 g/L for bentonite, confirming the usefulness of rheometry as a tool for identifying clays. Furthermore, results from rheometry tests also show an increase in the shear stress of kaolinite suspensions when there are made with leachate; such results are in agreement with geotechnical shear tests conducted on compacted samples. This study is of practical use for environmental geotechnics professionals because it offers an alternative to traditional geotechnical tests.

Protease enzymes are one of the industry’s most important enzymes, with a wide range of applications in different sectors, notably detergent manufacture, tanneries, bakeries, breweries, meat tenderization, and protein hydrolysis. The present study represents a first-time approach to filamentous fungi isolation in soil samples from the Bejaia area, situated in northeastern Algeria. The effects of the incubation duration, starting pH, moisture content, culture temperature, and inoculum size on the generation of protease by Aspergillus candidusstrain MKA05 were optimized using the one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) method. The test was carried out using wheat bran as a substrate in solid-state fermentation. Moreover, the Box-Behnken design (BBD) experiments were used to explore these variables by means of response surface methodology (RSM). Analytic variance analysis (ANOVA) was performed, and a component-based mathematical equation was derived to express protease production. Both OFAT and RSM optimizations showed a significant enhancement in protease yield, which increased 4.6-fold, with a maximum activity of 3076.92 ± 4.2 U/mL recorded in comparison to the protease activity of 675.11 ± 3.8 U/mL recorded in the standard condition. Substantial R2and p-value regression equations were used to examine the impact of individual activity, interaction, and square terms on the generation of proteases. The RSM approach reported that after 8 days, maximum protease production was achieved under optimal conditions: pH 9 using wheat bran as substrate at 24 °C with 53% moisture content.

Using a generalized dual translation operator, we obtain an analog of Titchmarsh’s theorem for the generalized Dunkl transform for functions satisfying the Q-Dunkl Lipschitz condition in the space $$\mathrm {L}_{Q}^{2}$$ LQ2 .

Olive mill wastewater (OMW) represents the effluent generated during the olive oil extraction process. OMW, as an oil-rich residue, provides a source of lipase-producing microorganisms and a source of complex nutrients that is potentially suitable to be applied in bacterial lipase production. This study focused on isolating actinobacteria able to produce extracellular lipases with OMW as the sole carbon source. Thirteen isolates of actinobacteria have been obtained and screened for their lipase activity using rapid plate detection methods. Then, the extracellular lipolytic activity was monitored under shaking flask conditions, and the titrimetric method was applied for lipase activity determination. Maximum lipase activity was detected for the SC1 strain (5.33 U/mL), which was then identified as a Streptomycesspecies. To enhance lipase production using the SC1 strain, Box-Behnken design (BBD)-based response surface methodology (RSM) has been adopted, by varying incubation time (days), pH, temperature (°C), inoculum size (spores/mL), and initial OMW concentration (%, v/v). An accompanying analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out, and the production of lipase was reported by a mathematical equation according to the factors. Non linear regression equations with significant R2and p-values were used to depict individual term, interaction, and square effects on lipase production. Individual term, interaction, and square effects on lipase production were shown using nonlinear regression equations with significant R2and p-values. The optimization results obtained showed that the optimal lipase activity was achieved after a 9 days incubation time at pH 4, with an inoculum size of 1.7×107(spores/mL), incubated at a temperature of 30°C using 6% (v/v) OMW as the sole carbon source.

Marine and coastal biodiversity is crucial to the planet’s functioning and offers ecosystem services that guarantee the health, wealth, and well-being of the entire humanity. This is why, evaluating the current body of research on coral reefs is essential for understanding the unprecedented growth of this field, which covers many topics including climate change, biotic interactions, bioresources, future bioprospecting, and biodiversity in general. Such an evaluation requires both descriptive summaries and co-citation analyses to understand the expansive nature of this particular research and identify research gaps. Given the importance of the topic and the fact that it is insufficiently addressed, this study fills in a gap regarding coral reefs studies. We analyzed coral reef research published in the Web of Science Core Collection database between 1970 and 2021, using the CiteSpace software. This gave a total of 20,362 records, focusing on variables including the list of contributors (author, affiliation, and country), total publications over time, dual map overlay, co-citation analysis (co-cited author and documents), cluster networks, and popular keywords and their burstness. We found that coral reef publications increased over time, with coastal countries (the USA, Australia, and Japan) being among the highest contributors. Researchers from Australia, New Zealand, and the USA are the top producers of coral reef research worldwide. Unsurprisingly, the journal Coral Reefs was the most productive journal. Interestingly, we found that keywords such as “great barrier reef,” “climate change,” and “predation” were among the top cited and most influential in coral reef science. To our knowledge, this is the first study to identify trends in coral reef research using scientometric analyses based on the CiteSpace software.

To validate the safety of automated vehicles (AV), scenario-based testing aims to systematically describe driving scenarios an AV might encounter. In this process, continuous inputs such as velocities result in an infinite number of possible variations of a scenario. Thus, metamodels are used to perform analyses or to select specific variations for examination. However, despite the safety criticality of AV testing, metamodels are usually seen as a part of an overall approach, and their predictions are not questioned. This paper analyzes the predictive performance of Gaussian processes (GP), deep Gaussian processes, extra-trees, and Bayesian neural networks (BNN), considering four scenarios with 5 to 20 inputs. Building on this, an iterative approach is introduced and evaluated, which allows to efficiently select test cases for common analysis tasks. The results show that regarding predictive performance, the appropriate selection of test cases is more important than the choice of metamodels. However, the choice of metamodels remains crucial: Their great flexibility allows BNNs to benefit from large amounts of data and to model even the most complex scenarios. In contrast, less flexible models like GPs convince with higher reliability. Hence, relevant test cases are best explored using scalable virtual test setups and flexible models. Subsequently, more realistic test setups and more reliable models can be used for targeted testing and validation.

Unique environments often serve as a source of novel microorganisms with novel chemistries. In this study, telluric samples collected from different regions of Algeria were processed for the isolation of novel peroxidase-producing actinobacterial strains. An agar-based screening identified 45 isolates with the ability to produce peroxidase. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed that most of the strains belong to the genus Streptomyces. Optimization of cultivation conditions was performed for the top five peroxidase-producing strains. Apart from strain 36 (optimal growth temperature of 30 °C) and strain 45 (optimal medium pH of 6.0), the strains exhibited optimal peroxidase production when cultivated for 5 days at 37 °C and in a medium at pH 7.0. Extracellular peroxidase production was induced by ferulic acid in three of the five strains, while the presence of canola lignocellulosic waste (CLW) induced peroxidase production in all strains. Strain 19 (S19) was selected for further optimization and the extracellular peroxidase purified using acid and acetone precipitation, followed by size exclusion chromatography. The purified fraction showed a single band on the polyacrylamide gel with an estimated molecular weight of 21.45 kDa. Genome analysis confirmed the assignment of S19 to the genus Streptomyces, the presence of genes encoding for peroxidases, and the presence of genes encoding for carbohydrate-active enzymes. The presence of biosynthetic gene clusters potentially encoding for biosurfactants further highlighted the great biotechnological potential of the strain.

The association of a frontal extra dural hematoma and an intra orbital hematoma is very rare, all the cases reported in the literature are case reports to our knowledge.

Depressed skull fractures constitute a common trauma condition in neurosurgery. Their surgical aspects and outcome remain less studied at Niamey.

In this paper, we prove the estimates for the first Hankel-Clifford transform in the space Lp((0,+∞),xμ),  μ≥0and 1

In this paper, using a generalized translation operator, we obtain an analog of Younis’s theorem 5.2 in Younis (International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences 9(2): 301–312, 1986) for the first Hankel-Clifford transform on the half line for functions satisfying the Dini-Clifford Lipschitz condition in the space L2(0,+∞),xμ, where μ≥0.

Using a translation operator, we obtain an analog of Titchmarsh’s theorem for the first Hankel-Clifford transform for functions satisfying the Clifford Lipschitz condition in the space L2((0,+∞),xμ), where μ≥0. .

Groundwater quality assessment is crucial for the sustainable management of water resources in arid regions, where groundwater is the primary source of water supply and increasing demand raises concerns. The study area in Southwest Algeria relies heavily on groundwater as a source of water supply, and the increasing demand for freshwater raises concerns about the quality of groundwater. To assess the hydrochemical characteristics and water quality of groundwater in the Ain Sefra region, multivariate statistical methods, geochemical modeling and water quality indices were employed. The study revealed that the groundwater samples could be classified into four water groups using hierarchical cluster analysis Q mode (HCA), namely Ca–Mg–HCO3, Ca–Mg–Cl–SO4, Ca–SO4and Na–Cl. Factor analysis was used to identify the main factors controlling the study area’s hydrochemical processes. The results indicated that water–rock interaction, reverse ion exchange and anthropogenic pollution were the main hydrochemical processes affecting groundwater chemistry. The water quality index indicated that the groundwater was suitable for human consumption, with only 2.32% of the samples being unsuitable. Additionally, the groundwater was suitable for agricultural use, but salinity control was necessary. The saturation index values showed that the groundwater was supersaturated with aragonite, calcite, dolomite, anhydrite and gypsum, and undersaturated with halite. Ca-smectite, Mg-smectite and kaolinite were identified as the primary processes controlling the chemical composition of groundwater. The application of multivariate statistical methods, geochemical modeling and water quality indices provided a comprehensive understanding of the hydrochemical characteristics and water quality of groundwater in the Ain Sefra region. The findings of the study can serve as a useful basis for future studies on groundwater quality assessment in the region.

In this paper, we prove the equivalence between a K-functional and a modulus of smoothness for the first Hankel–Clifford transform in the space L2((0,+∞),xμ).

We obtain new inequalities for the Fourier transform in the space Lp(Rn),  1

An analytical of new theoretical model has been developed to study the Capacitance characteristics for an optically controlled Gallium Arsenic Metal Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor MESFET (OPFET) doped uniformly. The model takes the effects of photoconductive and photovoltaic into account that determine the device characteristics in the illuminated condition. It has been presented here for an analysis of extrinsic and intrinsic parameters such as, gate capacitances including both of the gate-source capacitances gate-drain capacitances under dark and illumination condition. The numerical results have also been compared with the reported data experience in the literature and a good agreement is observed.

In this work, natural laterites from Burkina Faso were calcined at different temperatures in the range 400–800 °C. XRD, EDS, N2adsorption manometry and TGA–DSC analyses together with a thorough analysis of available literature data, support that the laterite sample consists mainly of goethite and hematite embedded in a framework of kaolinite and quartz with different interaction extents. During calcination up to 400 °C, the kaolinite structure is partially destroyed due to the loss of structural water and the goethite phase previously in association with the kaolinite lattice transforms into free hematite crystallites, resulting in a drop of the surface area of the composite material. At 600 °C, the kaolinite lattice is further deshydroxylated leading to an amorphous metakaolin matrix containing mainly surface hematite nanophases. Despite a substantial reduction of the surface area due to the calcination-induced shrinkage of alumino-silicate framework, the laterite calcined at 600 °C exhibits the highest performance in the methylene blue (MB) degradation by the Fenton process with a degradation percentage of 99% after 100 min of treatment at room temperature. The effects of solution pH, H2O2concentration, initial MB concentration and catalyst dosage were investigated. A slight but significant visible-light-induced removal enhancement effect suggested a visible-light photocatalytic activity of the hematite phase. This calcined laterite demonstrates a strong catalytic stability over several utilizations therefore is worth to be seriously considered in the design of sustainable and readily affordable wastewater treatment solutions in developing tropical countries.

Artemether–lumefantrine and artesunate–amodiaquine are used as first-line artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) in west Africa. Pyronaridine–artesunate and dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine are potentially useful for diversification of ACTs in this region, but further safety and efficacy data are required on malaria retreatment.

In this work, our objective is to study in a first step the relationships between oil price and stock market indices in Tunisia and Egypt using copulas, and then in a second step to analyse the optimal weights and hedge ratio for building optimal portfolios to minimise the exposure to risk from oil price changes. The model is implemented with an ARMA–GARCH–GPD using daily observations for the 2 January 1998 to 31 December 2013 period for the marginal distribution and the extreme value copula for the joint distribution, which allows taking into account non-linear dependence, tails behaviour and their development over time. Various copula functions are used to model the dependence structure between oil prices and stock markets of Tunisia and Egypt. Empirical results provide evidence of significant and symmetric tail dependence for international oil prices and stock markets. On the other hand, volatility for this stock markets registered record levels due to the increase of the degree of oil prices. However, dependence structure changed over time, indicating that hedging effectiveness and hedge ratio for the oil asset in the hedged portfolios varied over time.

La prévalence de la carence en vitamine A a été évaluée sur 102 enfants préscolarisés issus d’une population défavorisée de la ville de Constantine. Un questionnaire destiné aux parents a servi à la collecte des données sur l’enfant. Les profils alimentaires ont également été relevés. La prévalence de la carence en vitamine A est de 5,88 %. Pour l’ensemble de l’échantillon, l’alimentation est pauvre en légumes, en fruits et en viandes. Les apports en vitamine A sont en dessus des besoins de base pour 66,6 % des enfants. Plusieurs caractéristiques différencient les enfants carencés des non-carencés : les carencés consomment moins d’aliments riches en vitamine A. L’écart est significativement fort pour les margarines. Ils sont plus touchés par l’anémie. Leurs parents ont un niveau d’études bas et sont sans profession. Cependant le lait et les œufs constituent les principales sources de la vitamine A pour les deux groupes. Améliorer le niveau socio-économique des familles démunies éviterait les carences nutritionnelles chez les enfants dans les zones précaires en Algérie.

Stab wounds are rare, accounting for around 25% of all spinal cord injuries. They are the most frequent cause of penetrating wounds and occur mainly after an assault or suicide attempt. We report two cases of penetrating stab wounds of the dorsal spine.

In the above article [1], there are four instances in the article where “x” should be “X. ” They are listed below.

In this paper, we prove the generalization of Titchmarsh’s theorem for the Fourier transform for functions satisfying the $$(n,\alpha )$$ (n,α) -Fourier Lipschitz condition in the space $$\mathrm {L}^{2}(\mathbb {R}^{n})$$ L2(Rn) .

In this paper, we prove two estimates useful in applications for the Fourier transform in the space $$\mathrm {L}^{p}(\mathbb {R}^{n})$$ Lp(Rn) , $$1

With the “green economy” being promoted as a path to sustainable development and food security within the African continent, the influx of agricultural land is proliferating at a rapid pace often replacing natural savannah forests. Where agriculture is primarily rainfed, the possible adverse impacts of agricultural land influx on rainfall occurrences in water‐limited areas such as West Africa warrant attention. Using field observations complemented by model calculations in southeastern Burkina Faso, the main causes of a 10–30% suppressed daytime rainfall recorded over agricultural fields when referenced to natural savannah forests are examined. Measurements and model runs reveal that the crossing of the mixed layer height and lifting condensation levels, a necessary condition for cloud formation and subsequent rainfall occurrence, was 30% more frequent above the natural savannah forest. This increase in crossing statistics was primarily explained by increases in measured sensible heat flux above the savannah forest rather than differences in lifting condensation heights. Convective rainfall (CR) reduced by agricultural expansion in Burkina FasoReductions in CR explained by reduced sensible heat (H) over agricultural sitesReduced H reduced crossing between ABL height and lifting condensation level

The archaeal protein L7Ae and eukaryotic homologs such as L30e and 15.5kD comprise the best characterized family of K-turn-binding proteins. K-turns are an RNA motif comprised of a bulge flanked by canonical and noncanonical helices. They are widespread in cellular RNAs, including bacterial gene-regulatory RNAs such as the c-di-GMP-II, lysine, and SAM-I riboswitches, and the T-box. The existence in bacteria of K-turn-binding proteins of the L7Ae family has not been proven, although two hypothetical proteins, YbxF and YlxQ, have been proposed to be L7Ae homologs based on sequence conservation. Using purified, recombinant proteins, we show that Bacillus subtilis YbxF and YlxQ bind K-turns (Kd∼270 nM and ∼2300 nM, respectively). Crystallographic structure determination demonstrates that both YbxF and YlxQ adopt the same overall fold as L7Ae. Unlike the latter, neither bacterial protein recognizes K-loops, a structural motif that lacks the canonical helix of the K-turn. This property is shared between the bacterial and eukaryal family members. Comparison of our structure of YbxF in complex with the K-turn of the SAM-I riboswitch and previously determined structures of archaeal and eukaryal homologs bound to RNA indicates that L7Ae approaches the K-turn at a unique angle, which results in a considerably larger RNA–protein interface dominated by interactions with the noncanonical helix of the K-turn. Thus, the inability of the bacterial and eukaryal L7Ae homologs to bind K-loops probably results from their reliance on interactions with the canonical helix. The biological functions of YbxF and YlxQ remain to be determined.

An interview with Hamma Hammami, spokesperson of the Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia, is presented. Hammami states that the people of Tunisia are united around their economic, democratic, and social aspirations. When asked if some people present the revolution in the country as a spontaneous event, he says it is not true. He cites that a meeting at the office of the National Council of Lawyers was held on February 11, 2012.

The present study is aimed to investigate the effect of multiple extrusions of iPPWF composites with and without EBAGMA used as compatibilizer. The degradation induced by the recycling processes was evaluated through changes in molecular structure, morphology, rheology, thermal and mechanical properties. The results showed that after six cycles, the presence of WF imparts stability to the composite materials. This effect was enhanced for the compatibilized samples. Further, SEM revealed better dispersion of the WF in the matrix. In contrast, it was confirmed that after the first recycling, both the molecular weight and the properties of PP drastically decreased due to chain scission resulting from degradation.