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Introduction: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major public health problem worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) reveals that an estimated 257 million people worldwide live with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Objective: Morocco is so far considered, according to the WHO, to have an intermediate prevalence of viral hepatitis B. Currently, few studies report on the epidemiology of HBV in Morocco. The objective of this study is the assessment of the prevalence of HBV infection and risk factors in the southern region of Morocco precisely the province of Tiznit. Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted over a period of 5 years, from January 2014 to December 2018. Including 10,823 blood donors at the Tiznit Blood Bank. The search for the HBs antigen (HBs Ag) was carried out by ELISA technique "Murex HBs Ag version 3", by the BEP 2000 Advance plc. Results: The seroprevalence of hepatitis B in the study population is 0.20%, with a male predominance and a sex ratio of 4.5. The study of risk factors for hepatitis B in infected people found that informal dental care (31%), risky sex (23%) are the main risk factors for HBV transmission. Conclusion: According to this study, the seroprevalence of HBV in the province of Tiznit places Morocco as a country of low prevalence of viral hepatitis B. This figure is consistent with data reported to other regions of the country including Agadir Marrakech and Rabat. WHO should consider Morocco as a country of low endemicity to HBV.

Objectives: Our study aims to assess the contribution of the Filmarray Meningitis/Encephalitis panel in the diagnosis and management of infectious meningitis by comparing it to conventional culture, while highlighting the epidemiology of the pathogens involved. Methods: This is a retrospective study that was carried out on 115 CSF samples from patients clinically suspected of meningitis and analyzed by conventional methods and by the Filmarray M / E panel test. This work was carried out over a period of 36 months from January 2018 toDecember2020 at the microbiology laboratory of the Avicenne Military Hospital in Marrakech. Results: 115 samples were documented. The filmarray M/E panel detected at least one pathogen in 26 samples, representing a positivity rate of 22.6%. The infectious agents implicated in meningitis were predominated by viruses (52%, n=14), followed by bacteria (44%, n=11); yeasts are clearly in the minority making 4% (n=1) of the positive samples. The cultures were positive in 6 cases. Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most involved microbial agent, constituting a rate of 50% (n=3) of the bacteria detected in the cultures. The concordance rate was 75% for the detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae. In this study, only one sample was positive on the filmarray Meningitis / Encephalitis panel and negative on culture. Conclusion: The Syndromic Meningitis / Encephalitis FilmArray-type multiplex PCR is a simple, rapid and reliable diagnostic tool allowing the implementation of an early and adapted therapeutic strategy. However, given the importance of susceptibility testing, the use of molecular tests should be carried out in addition to conventional microbiology.

A.baumannii is an opportunistic bacterium that has emerged in recent decades as a causative agent of potentially epidemic nosocomial infections. This bacterium has been able to develop an impressive resistance against the majority of antibiotics, which explains the therapeutic difficulties encountered. The objective of this work is to determine, through a retrospective study, the epidemiological profile, and the antibiotic resistance of A.baumannii strains isolated from diagnostic specimens made at Avicenne military hospital of Marrakech, and follow their evolution over 5 years (2012-2017). A.baumannii accounted for 3.75% of all isolated organisms during this period (n = 183). All hospital services were concerned, with a predominance of reanimation units (66% of isolates). The results obtained showed that these pathogens originate in 53% of the protected specimen brush and the main infectious sites were pneumopathies and urinary tract infections. An increase in the resistance of A.baumannii isolates for all antibiotics tested was observed (Ceftazidime 87%, Céfépime98%, Imipenem 84%, Ciprofloxacin 96% and Gentamicin 61%). However, all strains remained sensitive to Colistin. These results confirm the multidrug-resistant nature of A.baumannii and its nosocomial nature. This resistance represents a serious therapeutic and epidemiological problem, hence the need for the establishment of a system for monitoring the microbial environment of the hospital and the strict application of preventive measures.

Bacterial multi-resistance is currently a major problem in our hospitals, because of the morbidity and mortality it generates mainly in intensive care and intensive care settings, and also a current medical problem. The objective of this study was to describe the epidemiological profile, frequency, and resistance status of bacteria resistant to Carbapenems at the Avicenne military hospital in Marrakech, over a period of 7 years from 2015 to 2021. This is a retrospective descriptive study of all the highly resistant bacteria identified from the database of the microbiology department at the HMA in Marrakech. The results show that the general prevalence of these HRBs was 7.54%, with a clear predominance of Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (53.4%), followed by Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (20.68%), then Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacter cloacae (9.57%), and finally Carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (6.17%). The general evolution of isolated HRBs was marked by the gradual and continuous increase in the prevalence of these bacteria during the study period, with a peak in 2020, when the prevalence reached 13.98%. High co-resistance has been found to several antibiotic molecules, which can be administered as an alternative. The rationalization of the prescription of antibiotics and the rigorous application of hygiene and prevention rules will make it possible to limit the emergence of these multi and highly resistant bacteria in our care structures. Knowledge of the bacteriological profiles and rates of resistance to antibiotics of this type of bacteria will allow treatment more adapted to each hospital context, and better targeted.

Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is a perforated tympanic membrane with persistent drainage from the middle ear. It is an avoidable cause of hearing loss, especially in developing countries. We conducted a prospective study over 8 years (1 January 2014 - 1 January 2022), Including 250 patients consulting the Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Department of the Avicenna Military Hospital in Marrakesh, in collaboration with the Laboratory of Microbiology. It included all non-redundant bacterial species isolated from pus of purulent chronic ear infections sent to the microbiology laboratory. The cytobacteriological analysis was carried out according to the conventional techniques and / or automated method of BD PhoenixTM. The antibiotic sensitivity study was carried using the diffusion method in agar medium according to the recommendations of the CA-SFM. There were 147 men and 103 women with a sex ratio of 1.4. The mean age of the patients was 34 years (8 to 82 years). The second and fourth decades represent the most affected age groups. The bacteriological profile was dominated byPseudomonas aeruginosa(40%), followed byStaphylococcus aureus(32%) andProteus mirabilis(13%). These different isolates represented low antibiotic resistance levels but all remained sensitive to fluoroquinolones. Five strains of enterobacteria produced derepressed cephalosporinase, and nine strains of Enterobacteria carrying extended spectrum Beta lactamase enzymes. No strain of Pseudomonas resistant to ceftazidime was isolated. Gram positive cocci accounted for 38% of the strains. In view of the bacteriological and the sensitivity profiles of the species found in chronic otitis, antibiotics based on fluoroquinolones are recommended.&nbsp

The objective of this study is to establish the frequency of multi-drug resistant bacteria (MDR) isolated at the Avicenne Military Hospital as well as their levels of resistance to antibiotics. This is a retrospective study conducted over 7years (2015 to 2021), at the Avicenne Military Hospital. Were collected all bacteriological samples received for diagnostic purposes, from patients hospitalized for at least 48 hours. The identification of the bacterial strains was based on the study of their morphological, cultural, and biochemical characteristics on the BD Phoenix™ i100 Automated System, which also allows susceptibility testing. Detection of resistance phenotypes was completed by the conventional method of disc diffusion in an agar medium. The interpretation was based on CA-SFM/EUCAST guidelines. The overall frequency of MDR bacteria is 14,3% with a large predominance of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae (54,1%) followed by Acinetobacter baumannii resistant to ceftazidime and/or imipenem (28,1%), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (9,3%), then Enterobacteriaceae resistant to carbapenems (5,2%), and finally Pseudomonas aeruginosa resistant to ceftazidime and/or imipenem which represented 3.3% of the MDR bacteria isolated. Co-resistance levels in MDR bacteria are high. The increasing frequency of multi-drug resistant bacteria highlights the importance of an appropriate antibiotic strategy and the necessity of the implementation of antibiotic resistance monitoring.

Helicobacter pylori infection remains the most common infection in the world, with differences between developed and developing countries, and between rural and urban areas. It is the cause of acute and chronic gastritis, duodenal and gastric ulcers, gastric MALT adenocarcinoma and lymphoma, and numerous extradigestive lesions that have been associated with various levels of evidence. The main purpose of our study was to determine the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in a sample of 300 patients referred by a physician for the diagnosis of acute gastritis. The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in our population was 46% on all tests. Serology had the highest percentage of positive results (71.4%) without distinguishing between active infections and old seroconversions, and testing for active infections had a positive rate of 36.25%. 21.78% each for stool antigen test and 13C-urea breath test. Women accounted for 59% of our positive results. This advantage is due to the larger number of females than the males in the sample, with a positive male-female rate of 46% for males and 45% for females. Several factors contribute to the reduced prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection, including improved socio-economic and health conditions, lifestyle and behavioral changes, and increased prescriptions for eradication treatment. Non-invasive testing is the best diagnostic method for patients with no signs of warning.

Various species of polysaccharides were extracted from algae collected from the west coast of Morocco. This area is known for its abundance of various species of algae. The polysaccharides of three species, Sargassum muticum, Cystoseira myriophylloides and Cystoseira baccata were selected and their rheological properties were evaluated at different concentrations (1, 3, 5, 7 and 9% by w/v) and in the temperature range from 10 to 60 °C. FTIR analysis of these polysaccharides was also carried out to identify the functional groups and its analysis revealed the presence of uronic acid groups. These polysaccharides showed non-Newtonian behavior. The evolution of the apparent viscosity as a function of shear rate was described by the power-law model. The values of the flow behavior index were less than unity at high concentration. The consistency coefficient greatly increased. The non-linearity was increased with concentration and it was characterized by a power law, basically for Cystoseira myriophylloides and Cystoseira baccata. Besides, the flow behavior temperature dependence was characterized by the Arrhenius model to extract the activation energy. The values of the activation energy were found between 11.28–13.76 kJ/mol, 15.29–17.67 kJ/mol, and16.83–17.98 kJ/mol for Sargassum muticum, Cystoseira baccata and Cystoseira myriophylloides, respectively.

In analytical systems of Arabic text recognition, segmentation is a critical and decisive stage. In this stage, words after being extracted from the text document are segmented into individual characters to allow the feature extraction and classification. The absence of standard corpus for printed Arabic text does not allow a good and objective comparison between different segmentation systems. In this paper, we propose two contributions. The first one is a multi-font reference corpus of printed Arabic text, in which we grouped all segmentation problems and which can be used as a reference to compare different segmentation systems. The second is a hybrid method for segmentation of printed multi-font Arabic text. The proposed method is based on two of the most known techniques in the field: contour based and Template matching techniques. This method is insensitive to the font variability and the characters overlapping. To evaluate the results of this method, we have studied, implemented and tested other methods in literature by using the proposed corpus. The experimental results show that our method gives better segmentation rates.

In this study, a new nano-sized mesoporous silica (MSN) as support for Ni-based catalysts was produced from natural resources and tested in the dry reforming of methane between 823 and 1023 K. The fresh and spent catalysts Ni-x/MSN (x = 5, 10 and 20 wt.%) were characterized by various techniques. All catalysts are selective for hydrogen production and exhibited long-term stability with low coke formation predominantly as carbon nanotubes, for Ni loadings less than 10% at 973 K. The catalytic results were correlated with the in situ generation of Ni nanoparticles which are highly dispersed on the MSN surface due to strong metal-support interactions thus preventing the sintering process. No significant deactivation was recorded along 25 h on stream meaning that the textural properties of the catalysts have not been altered by the coke deposition or reaction temperature. The prepared MSN is a potential support to be utilized for hydrogen generation.

Hand gesture recognition is a challenging task due to the complexity of hand movements and to the variety among the same gesture performed by distinct subjects. Recent technologies, such as Kinect sensor, provide new opportunities, allowing to capture both RGB and depth (RGB-D) images, which offer high discriminant information for efficient hand gesture recognition. In the aspect of feature extraction, the traditional methods process the RGB and depth information independently. In this paper, we propose a robust hand gesture recognition system based on a new feature extraction method, fusing RGB images and depth information simultaneously, by using the quaternion algebra that provide a more robust and holistical representation. In fact, we introduce, for the first time, a novel type of feature extraction method, named quaternion Tchebichef moment invariants. The novelty of the proposed method in this paper lies in the direct derivation of invariants from their orthogonal moments, based on the algebraic properties of the discrete Tchebichef polynomials. The proposed approach based on quaternion algebra is suggested to process the four components holistically, for a robust and efficient hand gesture recognition system. The obtained experimental and theoretical results demonstrate that the present approach is very effective for addressing the problem of hand gesture recognition and have proved its robustness against geometrical distortion, noisy conditions and complex background compared to the state of the art, indicating that it could be highly useful for many computer vision applications.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of body fluid exposures (BFE) and associated risk factors amongst healthcare workers (HCWs), and to evaluate hepatitis B (HBV) vaccination coverage, at Avicenne Military Hospital. Materials and methods: A descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study was conducted over 6 months amongst HCWs at the Avicenne Military Hospital. Data were collected using an anonymous questionnaire. Blood samples were collected from consenting participants, for assaying HBV surface antibodies. Results: One hundred thirty-four HCWs were interviewed, and 86 (64.2%) reported at least one BFE. The median age was 28 (27–34) years, with male gender predominating (54%). Percutaneous exposure was the most common BFE (95%), and the hollow bore needle the most implicated (45%). Only 34% of victims reported their BFE. The multivariate analysis showed that HCWs in a surgical department are 10 times more exposed to BFE (P = 0.003; odds ratio [OR] = 10, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2–47) compared to HCWs in medical departments (P = 0.009; OR = 0.06, 95% CI: 0.007–0.49) and laboratories (P = 0.04; OR = 0.1, 95% CI: 0.01–0.88). The HBV vaccination rate was 67%. Amongst HCWs tested, 42% were immune to HBV. Immune status between physicians and paramedical staff was significantly different (P = 0.005; OR = 0.2, 95% CI: 0.04–0.55). The immunization rate rose significantly with seniority (P = 0.016; OR = 17, 95% CI: 1.67–169). Conclusion: Our findings highlight the importance of information and continuous training on BFE for HCWs, and the development of strategies to promote and simplify access to the HBV vaccine.

The fifth generation of wireless mobile communication is one of the most recent technologies in the field of wireless communications; this advance should provide a very great service in terms of speed and diversity.