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210Po, 210Pb, and 137Cs activities were measured using gamma and alpha spectrometry in commonly consumed seafood collected from the local fish market of Kenitra, Morocco. 210Po activity ranged from 0.76 to 182.5 Bq kg−1 w.w, while 210Pb and 137Cs activities were 1 and 4 Bq kg−1 w.w, respectively. The potential health risks associated with the consumption of seafood were assessed through the calculation of the committed effective dose, the daily intake, and the lifetime cancer risk. The obtained results of the committed effective dose were below the limit (1 mSv year−1), while the lifetime cancer risk exceeded the range of acceptable values.

Over 40% of the world's population lives alongside the coastal zone. Furthermore, the continued increase of many identified and unidentified human activities nearby the coastal environment, such as estuaries, lakes, and lagoons, can harm the fauna, flora, and human health. Coastal environmental quality takes into account physical, chemical, biological, and geological characteristics, which are used as indices of determining the coast's suitability for human consumption or recreational use. The present study aims to review the impact of human activities on the coastal environmental quality of five Moroccan lagoons; Nador, Moulay Bouslham, Oualidia, Sidi Moussa, and Khnifiss lagoons. For this reason, sediments diagnostic comparison has been made on several studies of these five lagoons for Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Lead (Pb), Nickel (Ni), Zinc (Zn), and elements. The diagnostic comparison showed a moderate and severe affection of Nador, Oualidia, and Sidi Moussa lagoons by Fishing, aquaculture, tourism, and industrial activities, which is clear by the high concentration of toxic trace elements such as As, Cd and Cr in lagoon sediments. These results indicate the negative effect of those toxic elements on marine biota, which could cause biodiversity loss. This study demonstrated the real impact of the human activities on these lagoons, especially industrial activities, and suggests the need for providing a new environmental politics for protecting and surveying the Moroccan lagoons.

The operation of large-scale reverse osmosis units in combination with different solar power plants, both, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and Photovoltaics (PV) has been evaluated under variable load conditions. In the case of the Reverse Osmosis (RO) unit, configurations with and without an energy recovery device have been considered. In the case of the CSP plant, a thermal storage system with several capacities (8–14 h) covers the periods with low solar radiation and no storage has been taken into account for the PV plant due to the prohibitively high cost of batteries at large scale. Two scenarios and different strategies within each scenario have been proposed to adapt the operation of the RO unit at partial load in order to assure a stable operation. In the first scenario, the RO unit is represented as a whole unit with variable performance according to the power availability. In the second scenario, the RO unit is composed of 10 sub-units that are switched on/off depending on the power availability. The analysis has been done for a specific location in Algeria and the dynamic performance of the RO unit has been presented for each scenario, together with an economic analysis.

In this paper, the simulation of an electrical tower exposed to a lightning wave using Transmission Line theory is presented. It consists on representing the tower body and the cross-arms by vertical, horizontal and inclined transmission lines, respectively, and analysing it as a radial network. This approach permits the computation of the induced currents and voltages by the lightning, at any point of tower. For the indirect effect of lightning, we propose to replace the exciting electromagnetic “EM” field by equivalent current generators connected at the extremities of the all tower elements. Some simulation results and conclusions are also presented.

Background and Aims: The aim of our study was to test whether HbA1c can serve as a predictor of dyslipidemia in type 2 diabetic patients. Materials and Methods: 450 type 2 diabetic patients (165 males, 285 females), mean age of 58.7±9.9 years were included in this study. Venous blood samples were collected from all patients; serum was analyzed for HbA1c, fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) and low density lipoprotein-C (LDL-C). LDL-C/HDL-C and TC/HDL-C risk ratio were also calculated. For the data evaluation, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and independent samples t-test were used. Statistical significance was defined by a probability level of p < 0.05. Results: 399 (88.66%) of our patients had dyslipidemia. Low HDL-C was the most common form of dyslipidemia, observed in 311 patients (69.11%). Hypertriglyceridemia was found in 184 (40.88%) and elevated LDL-C in 229 (50.88%) patients. Values of HbA1c >7.0 % showed significant correlation with TC, LDL-C, TG, LDL-C/HDL-C and TC/HDL-C risk ratio, as compared to patients with HbA1c ≤ 7.0% (p Conclusions: The study suggests the usefulness of HbA1c as a predictor of dyslipidemia for screening of type 2 diabetic patients at high risk of cardiovascular diseases.

The present study examines the radionuclides (40K,226Ra and210Pb) concentrations in soil and plants collected from El Jadida agricultural area. The transfer factors of radionuclides from the soil to different components of the plants (stems, roots, leaves, and fruits) was also determined and assessed. The plants include various vegetable crops, including pumpkin, zucchini, beans, fennel, potato, sunflower, broccoli, onion, carrot, cabbage, tomato, and mallow from three different locations. A wide-range HPGe gamma-ray spectrometer is used for radionuclide activity measurement. The radionuclides activities of soil samples display a wide range of variability from one location to another. The concentrations of226Ra vary between 18 ± 1 Bq.Kg-1and 80 ± 4 Bq.Kg-1, the concentrations of210Pb range from 49.7 ± 4.4 Bq.Kg-1to 269 ± 16 Bq.Kg-1, and the40K values fluctuate between 94,1 ± 6,5 and 286,1 ± 15,3 Bq.Kg-1. The study showed that the transfer factor for K-40 is more significant than Pb-210 and Ra-226, mainly related to the use of fertilizers rich in potassium in the agricultural areas, leading to its concentrations increase.

Water quality preservation represents one of the biggest challenges the world is facing nowadays. In Morocco, water quality decline is among the significant problems facing the country’s water sector. Geographic Information System (GIS) is an effective and useful tool for interpreting, evaluating and displaying spatial data for water resources management. In order to assess the Physico-chemical characteristics of groundwater of the Sahel-Doukkala aquifers, water samples were collected from 50 points well distributed in the study area, analysed according to standard methods, and the results were interpreted using the geographic information system (GIS) technique. There was an important spatial variability in the studied parameters and element concentrations (T°, pH, EC, Cl-, Ca2+, Mg2+, Sr, B and Na+), revealing that the aquifers lithology, sea intrusion and the agriculture methods are the main factors influencing the water nature in the study area.

The efficiency of the parabolic trough solar plant depends to various parameters such as the storage design system, the used solar fluid and collector design. This paper presents an investigation study of the effect of the variation the aperture and focal width on the produced energy. In this context, a design of parabolic trough solar plant has been proposed. This solar plant is intended to install in Touggourt region, which is located in South-Eastern of Algeria. The results show that the proposed solar plant has six months of high energy production. The energy production increases with the increases the aperture width respected a low focal with value. The best-proposed design has large of aperture width and the smallest focal distance.

Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) events occur regularly along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coast of Morocco, and have been responsible for several severe cases of human intoxication. Along the southern Atlantic coast of Morocco, aquaculture and intensive artisanal fishing practices have recently been particularly heavily impacted, and toxic species have been observed in increasing intensity and frequency. In the 1990's a regulatory monitoring program was established for the coastal waters off Morocco by the National Institute of Fisheries Research (INRH), to reduce the risk of intoxication with biotoxins. The regulatory monitoring is conducted weekly and includes toxic phytoplankton enumeration and identification, as well as saxitoxin (STX) analysis in seafood using the mouse bioassay (MBA). Animal testing remains the most widely used screening method for PSP toxin detection, yet its use is being reconsidered for animal-related ethical issues, as well as for practical considerations. To be able to better evaluate alternatives to animal testing, the performance of a nuclear-based radioligand-receptor binding assay (RBA) for paralytic shellfish toxins was assessed and compared with the MBA using four commercially important shellfish matrices, including cockles Cerastoderma edule, razor shells Solen marginatus, oysters Crassostrea gigas, and mussels Perna perna. Over 50 samples were collected and analysed as part of the regulatory monitoring framework including a suite of monthly samples from 2017 and all samples identified as toxic by MBA since 2011. Testing of reference material and evaluation of assay-critical parameters (e.g. slope of calibration curve, internal quality control QC and IC50) confirmed the robustness of the RBA methodology. With this RBA method, STX-like activity detected in shellfish samples ranged from 33 to 8500 μg STX equivalents per kg. RBA data were significantly correlated (P 0.0001, Pearson r = 0.96) with the MBA-derived dataset. Importantly, the RBA method allowed for the detection and quantification of PSP toxins at levels not detectable by using the mouse bioassay. The limits of quantification of the RBA was calculated and found to be 10-fold lower than that of the MBA, respectively 35.24 ± 5.99 and 325 μg STX equivalents per kg of tissue. In addition, the RBA was easier to use and produced reliable results more rapidly than the MBA and without use of live animals. Considering the increasing risks associated with harmful algal blooms, globally and in Morocco, together with the increased development of aquaculture production and seafood consumption and the difficulties of live animal testing, these findings indicate that the RBA method is a reliable and effective alternative to the MBA method.

Solar power concentration is one of the most promising mean for the production of electricity by renewable energies.

Objective To evaluate the eating habits and the practice of physical-activity of patients with Tyhpe-2 diabetes. (DT2). Methods A total of 1523 patients DT2 with average age 58±9.9 were recruited. A questionnaire about their eating habits, physical activity was conducted. Data were analyzed using SPSS statistical. Results Most of the patients were obese (64%), with irregular and weak practice of the physical-activity. The patients based their consumption on food rich with nutrients of high glycaemic index. Their food was mainly characterized by high amounts of fats, the green salads and the desserts (fruits) represent only a secondary amount. Statistically, Overweight + obese patients with diabetes had significantly higher level of consumption of the bread. However, the normal weight patients with diabetes had significantly higher level of the consumption of fruit and vegetables (p=0.006 and p=0 respectively). On the other hand, there was no significant difference in level of the consumption of the greasy substances, milk and dairy products, meat-fish-egg two groups (p=0.53, p=0.06 and P > 0.05). Conclusion This study showed the need for an improvement in the nutritional care of DT2 patients in the area of Ain Defla (Algeria), also, the practice of the physical-activity, in order to plan an adequate therapeutic care.

The aim of this work is thermodynamic analysis of the combine of concentrated solar power plant CSP and multi-effect desalination (MED) compared with the combination of CSP with a reverse osmosis (RO) plant. The solar power plants disposed a solar tour (heliostat field and volumetric receiver and steam turbine for electric production. The performance of the solar plant and the desalination plant both working together is tested in a case study. In the city of MOSTAGANEM in ALGERIA. In this work, the radiometric and meteorological data arise directly from the software meteonorme 7. In addition, a steady state model has been made by proposing a set of nonlinear, algebraic equations for each cycle and implementing them in the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software.

Software Defined Network (SDN) is a new network architecture that decouples the control plane from the data plane by adding a new entity called “controller”. Most concerns about this new networking trend are: how fast can the controller respond to data path requests and how many data path requests can a controller handle per second. To answer those concerns, this paper presents a study and evaluation of different types of OpenFlow controllers in an SDN environment. The main objective of this study is to perform a comparison between different behaviors of some popular open source SDN controllers such as Floodlight, Beacon, Pox and Ryu in terms of latency and throughput. The main results show that Floodlight is better than the other tested controllers as this paper will explain.

Resume Objectif. – Nous avons voulu etablir un profil epidemiologique, clinique et evolutif de l'erysipele dans la region de Marrakech. Materiel et methodes. – Nous avons mene une etude retrospective ayant inclus les malades hospitalises pour erysipele dans le service de dermatologie du CHU Mohamed-VI a Marrakech au cours de la periode de 1990–2002. Resultats. – Cent malades ont ete colliges, repartis en 58 hommes (58 %) et 42 femmes (42 %). L’âge de nos patients variait entre 9 et 95 ans avec une moyenne de 47 ans. Le siege aux membres inferieurs etait note dans 87 % des cas interessants surtout la jambe dans 82 %, alors que le visage etait atteint dans 10 % des cas. Douze patients (12 %) avaient presente une recidive. Tous nos patients avaient au moins un facteur de risque : porte d’entree (80 cas dont 67 cas d’intertrigo-interorteils), obesite (10 % des cas), lymphœdeme (6 % des cas), diabete (3 % des cas). Le traitement de premiere intention a ete la penicilline G par voie parenterale dans 76 % des cas. L’evolution a ete favorable dans 78 % des cas. Commentaires. – L’erysipele reste une infection frequente en milieu hospitalier. Le traitement precoce par la penicilline G associee au traitement de la porte d’entree permet d’obtenir de bons resultats.

Resume Introduction Le psoriasis est une dermatose frequente dont la prevalence est estimee entre 1 et 3 p. 100. Les formes graves peuvent mettre en jeu le pronostic fonctionnel et vital du malade. Malades et methode Nous avons realise une etude retrospective portant sur 160 cas de psoriasis grave colliges entre 1990 et 2001. Nous avons inclus les malades atteints d’un psoriasis grave : psoriasis pustuleux, erythrodermique ou arthropathique, les formes generalisees ayant une evolution continue au-dela de 6 mois sans reponse favorable au traitement enfin les formes avec un PASI superieur a 50. Resultats L’âge des malades variait entre 6 et 85 ans avec une nette predominance masculine (96 hommes, 64 femmes). Neuf cas familiaux ont ete colliges. Une erythrodermie a ete notee dans 87 cas, un psoriasis pustuleux dans 31 cas, un psoriasis generalise dans 31 cas et un rhumatisme psoriasique dans 15 cas (dont 4 etaient associes a un psoriasis pustuleux). Un traitement local par les dermocorticoides ou un derive de la vitamine D a ete preconise dans respectivement 41,8 p. 100 et 13,75 p. 100 des cas. Le recours a un traitement general reposant essentiellement sur le methotrexate a ete necessaire dans 68,75 p. 100 des cas. L’evolution a ete souvent bonne, les rechutes ont ete notees particulierement a l’arret du traitement. Quatre deces ont ete repertories. Discussion Si le diagnostic de psoriasis est souvent aise, les formes graves posent encore un probleme therapeutique. Le traitement est difficile, parfois decevant, il repose sur des therapeutiques souvent onereuses et agressives requerant une surveillance rapprochee.

Resume Introduction Le syndrome de Sweet a ete decrit pour la premiere fois en 1964. Il est habituellement decrit chez l’adulte et reste rare chez l’enfant. Nous rapportons un cas chez un nourrisson de 23 mois. Observation Un garcon de 23 mois, avait des plaques cutanees diffuses papulo-œdemateuses annulaires, a bordure vesiculobulleuse. Les examens sanguins montraient une hyperleucocytose a polynucleaires neutrophiles, une anemie et un syndrome inflammatoire. L’histologie mettait en evidence un infiltrat dermique a polynucleaires neutrophiles. Le myelogramme etait riche, l’echographie abdominale normale. La corticotherapie orale (2 mg/kg/j) entrainait une amelioration spectaculaire. Au dix-neuvieme jour du traitement apparaissaient des adenopathies cervicales avec hepatomegalie. Le deuxieme myelogramme etait sans anomalie. L’evolution etait favorable sous corticoides. Discussion Le syndrome de Sweet est exceptionnel chez le nourrisson. La frequence d’association a une hemopathie maligne impose un bilan adapte et une surveillance prolongee. Le traitement de reference est la corticotherapie generale.

The paper presents an assessment of human exposure to extremely-low-frequency (ELF) electric field generated by a power line using the rotationally-cylindrical body model. The formulation is based on the Laplace type continuity equation. The induced current density in the three-dimensional (3D) model human body is obtained by solving the Laplace equation via the Finite element method (FEM). The main objective is to highlight some parameters influencing the distribution of the induced current density, such as the ohmic contact between the feet and the soil due to the soles of the shoes, and the electrical parameters of the soil. Furthermore, the influence of internal organs (the human model) to the induced current density distribution. The human body is represented by a homogeneous model and also by an inhomogeneous model composed of several organs namely brain, heart, lungs, liver and intestines, whose shapes were spheroid. The proposed model has been validated through comparison to either the experimental results or the theoretical results available in literature being computed by the aid of a homogeneous body model.

We report a rare case of posttraumatic aneurysm of the internal carotid artery. The aneurysm was surgically removed, followed by a simple postoperative course. Such lesions should be highly suspected in cases of penetration into the retroangulomandibular neck region.

The main objective of the present investigation was to examine how the damping properties of laminated composite plates vary with changes in the plate dimensions. Also, it was very important for plates with different ply-orientations to see how the dynamic characteristics vary from one plate to another or when the fibre-orientation was changed. The theoretical prediction of the natural frequency, mode shape and specific damping capacity for each mode obtained using the finite element method was to be compared with experimental results.