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Saint-Louis, ville tricentenaire et située dans le nord-ouest du Sénégal, est dans un processus d’urbanisation irréversible. Ses quartiers historiques, souvent mal planifiés et situés sur un site fragile, souffrent de nombreux dysfonctionnements. La médiocrité du site conjuguée à la cherté du marché locatif et au changement de statut socioprofessionnel a fait naître de nouveaux quartiers à la périphérie de la ville à l’instar de Boudiouck qui offre de nouvelles opportunités. Cette dernière est devenue la nouvelle destination privilégiée des acquéreurs de logement. D’autres foyers viennent gonfler cette périphérie en provenance des autres villes du Sénégal. Cette étude analyse ces nouvelles mobilités résidentielles afin de comprendre le profil des individus impliqués dans ces déplacements, les raisons de ces changements de logement et leurs trajectoires. Le couple recherche bibliographique et enquêtes de terrain a permis d’obtenir des résultats qui contribuent à la compréhension de ce phénomène. Les conclusions de cette recherche indiquent qu’une nouvelle bourgeoisie est davantage encline à changer de résidence grâce à ses moyens financiers. Les aspirations socioprofessionnelles, la précarité immobilière et environnementale ainsi que les charges locatives dans les quartiers centraux ont encouragé la mobilité résidentielle vers Boudiouck, avec des itinéraires résidentiels variés.

The Niger River, threatened by human activities, is the main drinking water source for the population of Bamako city. This study assesses the trend of Niger River pollution in Bamako using the Water Quality Index (WQI). Fourteen parameters, namely Turbidity, Potential of Hydrogen (pH), Electrical Conductivity, Dissolved Oxygen, Total Dissolved Solids, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonium, Phosphate, Sulphate, Chloride and Copper, were employed to characterise the Niger River water quality during the period from 2016 to 2020. Parameters were measured at 15 sampling locations. High values of Turbidity, pH and high concentrations of BOD5, COD, Nitrite, Ammonium and Phosphates were recorded. The results showed that the Niger River water quality was good for 4 months and poor for 5 months during the dry season in a low flow period. Moreover, the water quality was poor during the 3 months of the wet season in the high flow period. The calculated WQI average values ranged from 75 to 100, indicating very poor water quality from upstream to downstream of Bamako city. Therefore, the Niger River water is polluted and cannot be used for drinking or industrial uses without any treatment. HIGHLIGHTS Human activities affected the Niger River in Bamako.; Quantitative and qualitative assessments reveal the river pollution status.; The water quality trend deteriorated further upstream to downstream of Bamako.; WQI indicated that the Niger River water is poor and needs appropriate treatment before any use.; Principal component analysis (PCA) showed ion distribution, indicating water mineralisation and the weak capacity of the Niger River for self-purification.;

Neuromorphic image sensors draw inspiration from the biological retina to implement visual computations in electronic hardware. Gain control in phototransduction and temporal differentiation at the first retinal synapse inspired the first generation of neuromorphic sensors, but processing in downstream retinal circuits, much of which has been discovered in the past decade, has not been implemented in image sensor technology. We present a technology-circuit co-design solution that implements two motion computations—object motion sensitivity and looming detection—at the retina's output that could have wide applications for vision-based decision-making in dynamic environments. Our simulations on Globalfoundries 22 nm technology node show that the proposed retina-inspired circuits can be fabricated on image sensing platforms in existing semiconductor foundries by taking advantage of the recent advances in semiconductor chip stacking technology. Integrated Retinal Functionality in Image Sensors (IRIS) technology could drive advances in machine vision applications that demand energy-efficient and low-bandwidth real-time decision-making.

In this paper, fuzzy logic controllers (FLC) are used to implement an efficient and accurate positioning of an autonomous car-like mobile robot, respecting final orientation. To accomplish this task, called "Oriented Positioning", two FLC have been developed: robot positioning controller (RPC) and robot following controller (RFC). Computer simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique. Finally, real-time experiments have been made on an autonomous car-like mobile robot called "Robucar", developed to perform people transportation. Obtained results from experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.

Congenital analbuminemia (CAA) is a very rare genetic disorder characterized by a significant reduced or even complete absence of human serum albumin. Our data describe the clinical features and laboratory results of a case confirmed by mutation analysis of the albumin gene in a 35-year-old man presenting recurrent acute coronary syndrome. To the best of our knowledge, only two cases of coronary artery disease have been reported worldwide without recurrence. Our findings contribute to shed light on the clinical characteristics and biochemical parameters of this disease and confirm that cardiovascular complications must be taken seriously in this pathology. Mutational screening disclosed two novel compound heterozygous nucleotide variations located in intron 12 and in 3'UTR. The prediction of the functional and structural impact of the reported variations using different bioinformatics tools demonstrates that these genetics variations affect RNA transcription and mRNA folding.

Coronary artery disease is an inflammatory disease. Systemic markers of inflammation such as Interleukin-6, Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha and C-reactive protein have previously been shown to be associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events. The aim of the present study is to assess the role of variants in the IL-6 (- 174 G/C), TNFα (- 308 A/G) and CRP (+ 1059G/C) genes as susceptibility markers for CAD in a Tunisian population. The investigation was conducted as a case-control study involving 204 patients and 400 age-gender matched controls. Genotyping was performed using polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. There are significant differences between CAD patients and the control group with regard to BMI (p < 10 -3 ) and family history of CAD (p < 10 -3 ). The CAD patients are more likely to have a history of smoking (p < 10 -3 ), have a higher value of TC (p = 0.003), LDLc (p = 0.016), hs-CRP (p = 0.01), IL6 (p < 10 -3 ) and TNFα (p = 0.038). Our analysis showed significant differences between cases and controls in genotypic distribution of IL6-174CC (p = 0.003; OR = 7.71 CI (1.58-37.56)), TNFα - 308 AA (p = 0.004; OR = 2.95 (1.57-5.51)) and CRP + 1059 CC (p < 10 -3 ; OR = 5.40 (2.30-12.68)). However, we failed to find an association between the different genotypes and the inflammatory markers levels. Our results suggest that the presence of IL-6 (- 174 G/C), TNFα (-308 A/G) and CRP (+ 1059G/C) polymorphisms, may be considered to be a risk factor for CAD in Tunisian population.

This study aimed to characterize eight accessions of Vicia narbonensis L. originated from different Mediterranean countries. The cytology of these species is rarely known despite the fact of its great socio-economical and ecological interest in these arid and semi-arid zones. This work aimed mainly to characterize the karyotype, morphological pod and seed traits of the species. Karyotypes of all accessions were similar to a diploid number of 2 n  = 2 x  = 14. All the accessions have submetacentric chromosomes with a secondary constriction attached to the long arm of pair VII close to the centromere. Variation in chromosome size was observed; it ranged from 5.86 μm to 7.62 μm. Indices of karyotype asymmetry were calculated as the total form percentage (TF%) and symmetric indices (Syi) which ranged from 33.75% to 35.42% and from 51.01% to 54.85%, respectively. The predominance of submetacentric chromosomes indicated that the karyotype is symmetrical and can be considered as primitive. However, the analysis of quantitative parameters measured on pods and seeds showed a significant variation between accessions. A relationship between centromeric index and the pod beak length was found. Estimation of phenotypic diversity using the Shannon diversity index ( H ') showed that the length, the seed color and the number of seeds per pod are the most polymorphic traits with respectively, H ' = 0.92, 0.80 and 0.83. Cluster analysis of karyological, pod and seed traits showed four groups of accessions. This clustering is partially due to the geographical origin of the studied accessions. The variation in chromosome size, pod and seed traits could offer potentially valuable genetic resources for the improvement of V. narbonensis which is considered as neglected and underutilized crop species (NUCS).