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Four new 8-hydroxyquinoline derivatives, namely 5-((1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)methyl)quinolin-8-ol (BIMQ), 5-((5-methyl-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)methyl)quinolin-8-ol (MBMQ), 5-((5-chloro-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)methyl)quinolin-8-ol (CBMQ) and 5-((5,6-dichloro-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)methyl)quinolin-8-ol (DCBMQ) were prepared in moderate to good yields through the condensation of 5-(carboxymethyl)-8-hydroxyquinoline and substituted o-phenylenediamine. 1H, 13C NMR and elemental analysis confirm the formation of the desired compounds. The anti-corrosive potential of these heterocyclic compounds has been studied on carbon steel in 2 M phosphoric acid (H3PO4) electrolyte by means of electrochemical measurements. The inhibition efficiency of these heterocyclic compounds was strongly linked to the concentration and the structure of the molecules; reached a maximum of 94.7% for DCBMQ at 10−3 M. Data generated from potentiodynamic revealed that the investigated 8-hydroxyquinoline derivatives are mixed type inhibitors. The influence of temperature on the corrosion behaviour was assessed. The four quinoline derivatives adsorbed according to the Langmuir's adsorption isotherm. Surface analysis (SEM and XPS) confirmed the formation of a protective layer adsorbed on the steel surface. DFT calculations suggested that 8-hydroxyquinoline derivatives adsorb on the metal via the 8-hydroxyquinoline ring and their corrosion inhibition potential have some linear correlation with the degree of co-planarity of the benzimidazole and hydroxyquinoline rings. Monte Carlo simulations showed that the molecules adsorbed on Fe(1 1 0) surface through the 8-hydroxyquinoline in a near-flat mode and the adsorption energies both in the absence and presence of aqueous phosphate ions agree with the observed trends of inhibition efficiencies. Keywords: 8-Hydroxyquinoline, Carbon steel, Phosphoric acid, Corrosion inhibition, EIS, XPS, Theoretical calculations

International audience; A number of full reference and reduced reference methods have been proposed in order to estimate the perceived visual quality of 3D meshes. However, in most practical situations, there is a limited access to the information related to the reference and the distortion type. For these reasons, the development of a no-reference mesh visual quality (MVQ) approach is a critical issue, and more emphasis needs to be devoted to blind methods. In this work, we propose a no-reference convolutional neural network (CNN) framework to estimate the perceived visual quality of 3D meshes. The method is called SCNN-BMQA (3D visual saliency and CNN for blind mesh quality assessment). The main contribution is the usage of a CNN and 3D visual saliency to estimate the perceived visual quality of distorted meshes. To do so, the CNN architecture is fed by small patches selected carefully according to their level of saliency. First, the visual saliency of the 3D mesh is computed. Afterward, we render 2D projections from the 3D mesh and its corresponding 3D saliency map. Then the obtained views are split into 2D small patches that pass through a saliency filter in order to select the most relevant patches. Finally, a CNN is used for the feature learning and the quality score estimation. Extensive experiments are conducted on four prominent MVQ assessment databases, including several tests to study the effect of the CNN parameters, the effect of visual saliency and comparison with existing methods. Results show that the trained CNN achieves good rates in terms of correlation with human judgment and outperforms the most effective state-of-the-art methods. Keywords Mesh visual quality assessment Á Mean opinion score Á Mesh visual saliency Á Convolutional neural network

International audience

There is currently much interest in identifying influential spreaders in complex networks due to many applications concerned, such as controlling the outbreak of epidemics and conducting advertisements for commercial products, and so on. A plethora of centrality measures have been proposed over the years based on the topological properties of networks. However, most of these classical centrality measures fail to select the most influential nodes in networks with a modular structure despite that it is an omnipresent property in real-world networks. Few authors have introduced centrality measures tailored to networks with community structure. In a recent work, we have shown that, in this case, the centrality of a node should be represented by a two-dimensional vector. The first component quantifies the local influence of the node in its community, while the second component quantifies the global influence of the node on the communities which it is linked to. In order to compute the so-called modular centrality, one needs to know the community structure of the network. Unfortunately, in most cases, it is unknown and a community detection algorithm must be used. The majority of these algorithms are computationally intensive and sometimes they are inappropriate for large networks. In this paper, a community detection method based on the k-truss decomposition is used. Thanks to its nice structural and computational properties, it is well-adapted to large networks. Furthermore, we present a new ranking measure based on the weighted combination of both components of the modular centrality. Using the Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model in epidemic spreading simulations, we show that substantial improvements can be gained in order to identify the influential spreaders with significantly less computational cost and complexity.

International audience; Dans le présent papier, nous proposons l’étude et l’application d’une nouvelle approche pour l’aide à la reconnaissance automatique de cibles (ATR, pour Automatic Target Recognition) à partir des images à synthèse d’ouverture inverse (ISAR, pour Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar). Cette approche est composée de deux phases principales. Dans la première phase, nous utilisons deux méthodes statistiques pour extraire les caractéristiques discriminants à partir des images ISAR. Nous nous intéressons dans ce travail aux deux descripteurs multiéchelles issus des deux méthodes SIFT (Scale-Invariant Feature Transform) et la décomposition en ondelettes complexes DT-CWT (Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet Transform) qui sont calculées disjointement. Ensuite, nous modélisons séparément les descripteurs issus des deux méthodes précédentes (SIFT et DTCWT) par la loi Gamma. Les paramètres statistiques estimés sont utilisés pour la deuxième phase dédiée à la classification. Dans cette deuxième phase, une classification parcimonieuse (SRC, pour Sparse Representation-based Classification) est proposée. Afin d’évaluer et valider notre approche, nous avons eu recours aux données réelles d’images issues d’une chambre anéchoïque. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent que l’approche proposée peut atteindre un taux de reconnaissance élevé et dépasse largement l’utilisation du même descripteur avec le classifieur machine à vecteurs de support (SVM, pour Support Vector Machine).

International audience; With the recent advances in complex networks, image segmentation becomes one of the most appropriate application areas. In this context, we propose in this paper a new perspective of image segmentation by applying two efficient community detection algorithms. By considering regions as communities, these methods can give an over-segmented image that has many small regions. So, the proposed algorithms are improved to automatically merge those neighboring regions agglomerative to achieve the highest modularity/stability. To produce sizable regions and detect homogeneous communities, we use the combination of a feature based on the Histogram of Oriented Gradients of the image, and feature based on color to characterize the similarity of two regions. By constructing the similarity matrix in an adaptive manner, we avoid the problem of the over-segmentation. We evaluate the proposed algorithms for Berkeley Segmentation Dataset, and we show that our experimental results can outperform other segmentation methods in terms of accuracy and can achieve much better segmentation results.

International audience; In this work, we propose a novel approach for generating videos of the six basic facial expressions given a neutral face image. We propose to exploit the face geometry by modeling the facial landmarks motion as curves encoded as points on a hypersphere. By proposing a conditional version of manifold-valued Wasserstein generative adversarial network (GAN) for motion generation on the hypersphere, we learn the distribution of facial expression dynamics of different classes, from which we synthesize new facial expression motions. The resulting motions can be transformed to sequences of landmarks and then to images sequences by editing the texture information using another conditional Generative Adversarial Network. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that explores manifold-valued representations with GAN to address the problem of dynamic facial expression generation. We evaluate our proposed approach both quantitatively and qualitatively on two public datasets; Oulu-CASIA and MUG Facial Expression. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in generating realistic videos with continuous motion, realistic appearance and identity preservation. We also show the efficiency of our framework for dynamic facial expressions generation, dynamic facial expression transfer and data augmentation for training improved emotion recognition models.

Field measurements were conducted to determine aerosol chemical composition at a newly established remote high-altitude site in North Africa at the Atlas Mohammed V (AMV) atmospheric observatory located in the Middle Atlas Mountains. The main objectives of the present work are to investigate the variations in the aerosol composition and better assess global and regional changes in atmospheric composition in North Africa. A total of 200 particulate matter (PM10) filter samples were collected at the site using a high-volume (HV) collector in a 12 h sampling interval from August to December 2017. The chemical composition of the samples was analyzed for trace metals, water-soluble ions, organic carbon (OC/EC), aliphatic hydrocarbons, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contents. The results indicate that high-altitude aerosol composition is influenced by both regional and transregional transport of emissions. However, local sources play an important role, especially during low wind speed periods, as observed for November and December. During background conditions characterized by low wind speeds (avg. 3 m s−1) and mass concentrations in the range from 9.8 to 12 µg m−3, the chemical composition is found to be dominated by inorganic elements, mainly suspended dust (61 %) and ionic species (7 %), followed by organic matter (7 %), water content (12 %), and unidentified mass (11 %). Despite the proximity of the site to the Sahara, its influence on the atmospheric composition at this high-altitude site was mainly seasonal and accounted for only 22 % of the sampling duration. Biogenic organics contributed up to 7 % of the organic matter with high contributions from compounds such as heneicosane, hentriacontane, and nonacosane. The AMV site is dominated by four main air mass inflows, which often leads to different aerosol chemical compositions. Mineral dust influence was seasonal and ranged between 21 % and 74 % of the PM mass, with peaks observed during the summer, and was accompanied by high concentrations of SO42- of up to 3.0 µg m−3. During winter, PM10 concentrations are low (<30 µg m−3), the influence of the desert is weaker, and the marine air masses (64 %) are more dominant with a mixture of sea salt and polluted aerosol from the coastal regions (Rabat and Casablanca). During the daytime, mineral dust contribution to PM increased by about 42 % because of road dust resuspension. In contrast, during nighttime, an increase in the concentrations of alkanes, PAHs, alkane-2-ones, and anthropogenic metals such as Pb, Ni, and Cu was found due to variations in the boundary layer height. The results provide the first detailed seasonal and diurnal variation of the aerosol chemical composition, which is valuable for long-term assessment of climate and regional influence of air pollution in North Africa.

International audience; In the field of Image Quality Assessment (IQA), this paper examines a Reduced Reference (RRIQA) measure based on the bi-dimensional empirical mode decomposition. The proposed measure belongs to Natural Scene Statistics (NSS) modeling approaches. First, the reference image is decomposed into Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF); the authors then use the Generalized Gaussian Density (GGD) to model IMF coefficients distribution. At the receiver side, the same number of IMF is computed on the distorted image, and then the quality assessment is done by fitting error between the IMF coefficients histogram of the distorted image and the GGD estimate of IMF coefficients of the reference image, using the Kullback Leibler Divergence (KLD). In addition, the authors propose a new Support Vector Machine-based classification approach to evaluate the performances of the proposed measure instead of the logistic function-based regression. Experiments were conducted on the LIVE dataset.

International audience; This paper deals with the image quality assessment (IQA) task using a natural image statistics approach. A reduced reference (RRIQA) measure based on the bidimensional empirical mode decomposition is introduced. First, we decompose both, reference and distorted images, into intrinsic mode functions (IMF) and then we use the generalized Gaussian density (GGD) to model IMF coefficients of the reference image. Finally, we measure the impairment of a distorted image by fitting error between the IMF coefficients histogram of the distorted image and the estimated IMF coefficients distribution of the reference image, using the Kullback-Leibler divergence (KLD). Furthermore, to predict the quality, we propose a new support vector machine-based (SVM) classification approach as an alternative to logistic function-based regression. In order to validate the proposed measure, three benchmark datasets are involved in our experiments. Results demonstrate that the proposed metric compare favorably with alternative solutions for a wide range of degradation encountered in practical situations.

International audience; OBJECTIVE: To estimate the minimum clinically important improvement (MCII) and patient acceptable symptom state (PASS) values for 4 generic outcomes in 5 rheumatic diseases and 7 countries. METHODS: We conducted a multinational (Australia, France, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, Spain, and The Netherlands) 4-week cohort study involving 1,532 patients who were prescribed nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs for ankylosing spondylitis, chronic back pain, hand osteoarthritis, hip and/or knee osteoarthritis, or rheumatoid arthritis. The MCII and PASS values were estimated with the 75th percentile approach for 4 generic outcomes: pain, patient global assessment, functional disability, and physician global assessment, all normalized to a 0-100 score. RESULTS: For the whole sample, the estimated MCII values for absolute change at 4 weeks were -17 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] -18, -15) for pain; -15 (95% CI -16, -14) for patient global assessment; -12 (95% CI -13, -11) for functional disability assessment; and -14 (95% CI -15, -14) for physician global assessment. For the whole sample, the estimated PASS values were 42 (95% CI 40, 44) for pain; 43 (95% CI 41, 45) for patient global assessment; 43 (95% CI 41, 44) for functional disability assessment; and 39 (95% CI 37, 40) for physician global assessment. Estimates were consistent across diseases and countries (for subgroups ≥20 patients). CONCLUSION: This work allows for promoting the use of values of MCII (15 of 100 for absolute improvement, 20% for relative improvement) and PASS (40 of 100) in reporting the results of trials of any of the 5 involved rheumatic diseases with pain, patient global assessment, physical function, or physician global assessment used as outcome criteria.

International audience; In this paper, we propose a new method based on texture analysis for trabecular bone disease diagnosis. For this purpose, we present a working model based on a preprocessing step followed by a projection on a 1D oriented axis at a defined angle. First, the dual-tree transform M-band is applied on the 1D obtained signal. Then, the Rényi based information measure is computed on sub-bands coefficients in order to characterize the anisotropy which is strongly present in our application related to bone radiograph characterization. Finally, the Wilcoxon test is used on the Rényi entropies obtained for each subband and the K nearest neighborhoods classifier is used with the Rényi divergence as a distance. Applied on two different populations composed of osteoporotic (OP) patients and control (CT) subjects, a classification rate of 98% is achieved which provides a good discrimination between OP patients and CT subjects.

International audience; Phosphorene, a new two-dimensional material, was investigated theoretically as a promising photocatalyst material. The structural and electronic properties of phosphorene were studied using hybrid functional based HSE approximation. The effect of the adsorbed molecules on the phosphorene surface was studied for various chemical elements, such as water molecule (H2O), hydronium ion (H3O+), hydrogen atom and ion (H/H+), hydroxide molecule (OH), and hydroxide ion (OH−). The potential application of phosphorene as a photocatalyst in vacuum was proved under different pH values. A pH of 8 was found to be the suitable value for clean phosphorene in which the flat band position was corrected for the oxidizing and reducing potentials of phosphorene, but the presence of OH− ions in a basic solution damaged the surface structure and limited the use of phosphorene in photocatalysis caused by the high content (0.25 ML and 0.5 ML) of the adsorbed OH− on the phosphorene surface. The obtained results matched the required parameters of a photocatalyst for water splitting using clean phosphorene surface in neutral solution (pH = 7).

The hybrid Strandberg complex materials have attracted intensive interest due to their multifunctional properties. In this work, we report the electronic, optical, and magnetocaloric properties of the novel material (C6H10N2)2[Co(H2O)4P2Mo5O23].6H2O. First principle calculations based on the density functional theory (DFT) have been performed using full-potential linearized augmented plane waves (FP-LAPW). The crystals of (C6H10N2)2[Co(H2O)4P2Mo5O23].6H2O with triclinic structure were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The profiles of the density of states (DOS), the optical spectra including the real and imaginary part of the dielectric function, and the measured magnetocaloric properties were presented and analyzed in detail. The results found are in agreement with experimental measurements. As pertinent results, the compound presents a high absorption coefficient in the visible range. A systematic analysis of the experimental and theoretical results shows a good bandgap, a high optical property, and a low magnetocaloric effect which reveals promising original material in optoelectronic, and photovoltaic applications.

International audience; Cet article examine le statut de la racine comme base de dérivation dans la morphologie verbale en arabe marocain. Il fournit un ensemble d'arguments théoriques qui motivent la fonction morphologique de la racine. La preuve provient de la formation des verbes causatifs en arabe marocain. On fait valoir qu'une approche à base de racines évite les problèmes de l'incohérence de la base, de la non-conformité de la base et de l'indisponibilité de la base. Cependant, une approche à base de mots fait face à ces problèmes. Plus précisément, lorsqu'une approche à base de mots est adoptée, on démontre que a) le causatif peut être dérivé de façon incohérente de la forme verbale du parfait ou de l'imparfait, b) certains causatifs perdent de façon aléatoire une partie du matériel phonologique de leurs bases et c) certains causatifs n'ont pas de base correspondante.

As part of the 2015/2030 strategic vision for the reform of the Moroccan education system, in-service training has taken on a key role in designing the arsenal of pedagogical and organizational mechanisms for achieving the expected objectives. Certainly, the initial training that teachers received in training centers remains fruitful, because the training curriculum is rich and focused on a range of skills, but since the educational context is constantly evolving, it is requested to the structures attached to the Ministry of Education to organize for them other types of training such as continuing professional development, knowing that the teacher, himself, must take the initiative to develop his teaching expertise. In this sense, the Ministry of National Education has elaborated the National Strategy of Continuing Education (SNFC), in which the national orientations in the field of continuing education are put forward. This strategy is the explicit expression of the ninth project, entitled "Innovation in education and training and promotion of career management", which is included in the portfolio of projects implementing the provisions of Framework Law 51.17. This current project, in addition to optimizing initial training, aims to make continuing professional development mandatory and central to the professional advancement of all educational actors. JEL Classification: H52, I25, O15 Paper type: Theoretical Research, Dans le cadre de la vision stratégique 2015/2030 pour la réforme du système éducatif marocain, la formation continue a pris une place névralgique lors de la conception de l’arsenal des dispositifs pédagogiques et organisationnels. Certes la formation initiale que les enseignants ont reçue aux centres de formation demeure fructueuse, du fait que le cursus de formation y est riche et axé sur une panoplie de compétences, mais puisque le contexte éducatif évolue constamment, il est demandé aux structures se rattachant au ministère de tutelle d’organiser en leur faveur d’autres types de formation comme la formation professionnelle continue. Sans oublier que l’enseignant , lui-même, doit prendre l’initiative pour développer ses expertises pédagogiques. Dans ce sens, Le Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale a élaboré la Stratégie Nationale de la Formation Continue (SNFC), dans laquelle sont mises en avant les orientations nationales en matière de la formation continue. D’ailleurs, cette stratégie est l’expression explicite du neuvième projet, intitulé « l’innovation des métiers de l’éducation et de la formation et la promotion de la gestion des parcours professionnels », inclus dans le portefeuille des projets traduisant les dispositions de la loi-cadre 51.17. Ce projet en vigueur, outre qu’il vise l’optimisation de la formation initiale, a pour objectif de rendre la formation professionnelle continue obligatoire et au cœur de la promotion professionnelle pour tous les acteurs éducatifs. Classification JEL: H52, I25, O15 Type de l’article : Article théorique

Background One year after the declaration of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) and despite the implementation of mandatory physical barriers and social distancing, humanity remains challenged by a long-lasting and devastating public health crisis. Management Non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) are efficient mitigation strategies. The success of these NPIs is dependent on the approval and commitment of the population. The launch of a mass vaccination program in many countries in late December 2020 with mRNA vaccines, adenovirus-based vaccines, and inactivated virus vaccines has generated hope for the end of the pandemic. Current Issues The continuous appearance of new pathogenic viral strains and the ability of vaccines to prevent infection and transmission raise important concerns as we try to achieve community immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants. The need of a second and even third generation of vaccines has already been acknowledged by the WHO and governments. Perspectives There is a critical and urgent need for a balanced and integrated strategy for the management of the COVID-19 outbreaks organized on three axes: (1) Prevention of the SARS-CoV-2 infection, (2) Detection and early diagnosis of patients at risk of disease worsening, and (3) Anticipation of medical care (PDA). Conclusion The “PDA strategy” integrated into state policy for the support and expansion of health systems and introduction of digital organizations (i.e., telemedicine, e-Health, artificial intelligence, and machine-learning technology) is of major importance for the preservation of citizens' health and life world-wide.

International audience; Engineering of new heterogeneous metal-free catalysts is of great importance for persulfate activation. Herein, Innovative conductive polymers Polyaniline (PANI) and Polypyrrole (PPy) were used as promising catalysts for PS activation to effectively degrade organic pollutants. In fact, PANI and PPy can provide the necessary electron transfer based on nitrogen atoms located in the conjugated chains compared to their counterparts in the defective sites. In addition, PANI and PPy were immobilized inside membrane formed by cross linking alginate biopolymer by divalent calcium ions, in order to develop a new stable hydrogel beads catalyst. The prepared hydrogels-activated PS process could maintain excellent catalytic properties, mitigate catalysts deactivation, increased chemical stability and offer hope for their application in the industrial scale. The radical scavenging experiments monitored by the electron paramagnetic resonance and functional theory calculations, indicated the role of the PANI and PPy conjugated chains and the nature of the reaction pathways.

International audience; A major challenge for humanity in the twenty-first century is to combine energy with respect for the environment. During the Rio Earth Summit (2012) the issue of sustainable development was clearly demonstrated. One of the major battles this century for the planet's survival is to include energy efficiency as an international policy priority in order to achieve a significant decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, we have presented the current state and outlook of energy efficiency in the transport, residential and industrial sectors, as well as its policy for each sector in Morocco. New strategies implemented by the government for sustainable development were reviewed and discussed. Through these strategies, the shift to energy efficiency is at the forefront of national policy implications for energy security and a low-carbon economy.

International audience; Cross-coupling in piezoelectric transducer arrays is an undesirable phenomenon which decreases the performance of these devices. Indeed, when one element of a transducer is driven, it generates parasitic displacement fields at the radiating surfaces of the neighboring elements, which changes the directivity of the array. The objective of this paper is to investigate the cross-coupling effects on the piezoelectric transducer arrays performance and to propose solutions to reduce this parasitic phenomenon. In this context, it is demonstrated that a filling material having high mechanical losses contributes to the reduction of cross-coupling. In addition to this, a procedure of active cancellation of cross-coupling is successfully tested in the case of two transducer arrays vibrating in the transverse mode for the first prototype and thickness mode for the second one. Finally, the ability of the method is demonstrated even when the displacement at the radiating surface of the transducer array is not uniform.

International audience; The higher heating value (HHV) is a significant parameter for the determination of fuel quality. However, its measurement is time-consuming and requires sophisticated equipment. For this reason, several researches have been interested to develop mathematical models for the prediction of HHV from fundamental composition. The purpose of this study is to develop new correlations to determine the biomass HHV from ultimate analysis. As a result, two models were elaborated. The first was developed using multiple variable regression analysis while the second has adopted genetic programming formalism. Data of 171 from various types of biomass samples were randomly used for the development (75%) and the validation (25%) of new equations. The accuracy of the established models was compared to previous literature works in terms of correlation coefficient (CC), average absolute error (AAE), and average bias error (ABE). The proposed models were more performing with the highest CC and the smallest errors.

Perovskite manganite (1−x)La0.6Ca0.4MnO3/xMn2O3 (x = 0, 0.05. 0.1, 0.15, 0.20) composites were prepared by solid state reaction method. X-ray diffraction measurements were used to confirm the crystal structure and the average crystallite size of the samples. Their magnetic, magnetocaloric and heat capacity properties display a presence of second order magnetic phase transition at 260 K. The maximum magnetic entropy change was found to be 5.33 J/kgK for x = 0.1 of Mn2O3 under 5 T. The relative cooling power (RCP) was found (235 J/kg) to largely exceed that reported in early works for a similar family of materials. In addition, the RCP of the mother alloy is enhanced by more than 20% under 32 kOe without affecting the Curie temperature that remains approximately constant close to 260 K. Our results suggest that the addition of Mn2O3 could be useful for the enhancement of the LCMO refrigerant capacity without affecting the Curie temperature.

International audience; The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aims to reach 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs 6 deals with water security, which refers mainly to ensure availability and sustainable management of water. The present study aims to enhance reservoir performance under climate change to deal with water scarcity. For this purpose, we proposed a new methodology where precipitation and evaporation data provided through temporal downscaling are leveraged by a real-time management algorithm coupled with the Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS). The real-time dam management algorithm is based on water balance equation and rule curves. It provides information about (1) dam storage, (2) dam release, (3) dam evaporation, (4) dam diversion, (5) spilled water volume, (6) emergency spilled water volume, (7) dam inflow, (8) irrigation demand, (9) irrigation shortage, (10) dam siltation, (11) dam hydropower production , (12) hydropower energy income. The developed approach has been applied to the Hassan Addakhil multipurpose reservoir in Morocco. The result shows that the dam reliability and resilience have increased from 40% to 70% and from 16% to 66%, respectively, while the vulnerability remained constant. Additionally, this study has pointed out that the installation of a hydropower plant is an opportunity to produce clean electrical energy and generate an income enough to cover different costs related to dam management and maintenance. Therefore, the real-time management tool developed in the framework of this project can significantly enhance reservoir performance .

CoFe2O4 nanoparticles were prepared by the co-precipitation method, the structural properties were performed using X-Ray Diffraction (DRX) in the goal to prove the success of Cobalt ferrite formation and determine crystal parameters. The size and morphological study were building using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The magnetic properties were carried using MPMS SQUID device. The CoFe2O4 nanoparticles present a ferromagnetic behavior below their transition temperature and values of 3 µB of total magnetic moment were achieved under magnetic field of 5 T. Based on the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method, with the generalized gradient and GGA-PBE approximation, the electronic structure and local magnetic moment were calculated. This theoretical study contributed to a better understanding the role of magnetic interaction sin CoFe2O4 spinel ferrites. Moreover, the theoretical magnetic properties of CoFe2O4 show a good agreement with the experimental results obtained.

In the current study, thin films of tin sulfide (SnS) were grown by sol–gel spin-coating technique deposited on glass substrates. The obtained thin films were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) and UV–Vis spectrometer and the four point technique, respectively. The effect of annealing temperature on the SnS properties has been studied. The XRD results reveal that the films annealed at 500 °C have good crystalline quality with orthorhombic phase. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra shows the Sn–S bond. The photoluminescence spectra showed two categories of band emission. The optical parameters (α, e, n, k, Eg, and σop) were determined using UV–Vis spectroscopy. Moreover, the obtained results were compared to the theatricals results obtained with density functional theory (DFT) method using ab-initio approach. The optical and the electrical properties of the SnS Layers annealed at 400 °C and 500 °C offer the best possibility for their utilization in photovoltaic applications.

Energy is essential for humans in everyday life and critical to economic growth and developement progress in industrial sectors. The global energy sources are mostly from fossil resources (e.g oil, coals, gas) being dominant source of local air pollution and emitter of the most dangerous green house gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), largely responsible for the ozone layer depletion. In the context of the current shortage of those ressources due to the continuously increase in demands in energy and while fossil reserves will eventually run out, the discovery and development of a low-carbon technologies become critical with the need to decarbonise and reduce our dependency to fossil fuels. One of theses technologies is the magnetic refrigeration based on the magnetocaloric effect (MCE). In this thesis, we have investigated the magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of strongly correlated oxides thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition in view of their portential application in magnetic cooling. The obtained results reveal that the magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of PrVO3 (PVO) compounds can be easy tailored by using the thin films approach. Particularly, the coercive magnetic field was dramatically decreased making from the PVO compound a nearly soft magnet in the region where the magnetic entropy change is released as well as a considerable increase in saturation magnetization. Accordingly, a giant magnetocaloric effect is exhibited by PVO thin films grown on LSAT substrate at low temperatures showing the great impact of strain effects. This finding opens the way for the implementations of PVO thin films in some specific applications such as on-chip magnetic cooling of a nanoelectronic device and sensor technology. On the other hand, the DFT calculations have confirmed the ground state and the competition between magnetic interactions under compressive strains in PVO thin films. Our result not only suggests that epitaxial PVO thin films is potential for refrigeration at cryogenic temperatures but may also pave the way to create many novel functionalities in perovskite-type transition metal oxides by control of structural aspects.The mechanisms leading to the giant anisotropic magnetocaloric effect observed in HoMn2O5 single crystals are also studied. Both DFT calculations and Monte Carlo simulation allowed us to explore the role of Holmium ions as the main contributor to the MCE as well as the of the importance of the intrinsic anisotropic properties as a promising way to optimize the MCE for magnetic refrigeration application at low temperature regime as well as the implementation of compact and efficient rotary magnetic refrigerators., L’énergie est indispensable pour l’homme dans la vie quotidienne et essentielle à la croissance économique et au progrès du développement dans les secteurs industriels. Les sources d’énergie mondiales proviennent principalement de ressources fossiles (pétrole, charbons, gaz) qui sont la principale source de pollution atmosphérique locale et l’émetteur des gaz à effet de serre comme le dioxyde de carbone (CO2), responsable en grande partie de l’appauvrissement de la couche d’ozone. Dans le contexte de la pénurie actuelle de ces ressources en raison de l’augmentation continue de la demande d’énergie et alors que les réserves fossiles finiront par s’épuiser, la découverte et le développement d’une technologie à faible émission de carbone deviennent critiques avec la nécessité de décarboniser et réduire notre dépendance aux combustibles fossiles. Une de ces technologies est la réfrigération magnétique basée sur l’effet magnétocalorique (MCE). Au cours de cette thèse, nous avons étudié les propriétés magnétiques et magnétocaloriques des films minces d’oxydes fortement corrélés à structure pérovskite déposés par ablation laser pour les applications de la réfrigération magnétique. Les résultats obtenus montrent que les propriétés magnétiques et magnétocaloriques de composés PrVO3 peuvent être facilement modulées en utilisant l’approche des couches minces. En particulier, le champ magnétique coercitif a considérablement diminué faisant à partir du composé PVO un aimant presque doux dans la région où l’entropie magnétique est libérée ainsi qu’une augmentation considérable de l’aimantation de saturation. En conséquence, un effet magnétocalorique géant est présentée par les films minces de PVO déposés sur un substrat de LSAT à basse température montrant l’impact de l’effet des contraintes épitaxiales. D’autre part, les calculs DFT ont confirmé l’état fondamental et la compétition entre les interactions magnétiques sous contraintes de compression dans PVO films minces. Notre résultat suggère non seulement que les couches minces épitaxiales de PVO sont potentielles pour la réfrigération aux températures cryogéniques mais peuvent également ouvrir la voie à créer de nombreuses nouvelles fonctionnalités dans les oxydes perovskite par le contrôle des aspects structurels. Les mécanismes menant à l’effet magnétocalorique anisotropique géant observé dans les monocristaux du HoMn2O5 sont également étudiés. Les calculs DFT et la simulation de Monte Carlo nous ont permis d’explorer le rôle des ions d’Holmium en tant que principal contributeur au MCE ainsi que l’importance des propriétés anisotropes intrinsèques comme moyen prometteur d’optimiser l’EMC pour l’application de la réfrigération magnétique à basse température ainsi que la mise en œuvre de réfrigérateurs magnétiques rotatifs compacts et efficaces.

Energy is essential for humans in everyday life and critical to economic growth and developement progress in industrial sectors. The global energy sources are mostly from fossil resources (e.g oil, coals, gas) being dominant source of local air pollution and emitter of the most dangerous green house gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), largely responsible for the ozone layer depletion. In the context of the current shortage of those ressources due to the continuously increase in demands in energy and while fossil reserves will eventually run out, the discovery and development of a low-carbon technologies become critical with the need to decarbonise and reduce our dependency to fossil fuels. One of theses technologies is the magnetic refrigeration based on the magnetocaloric effect (MCE). In this thesis, we have investigated the magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of strongly correlated oxides thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition in view of their portential application in magnetic cooling. The obtained results reveal that the magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of PrVO3 (PVO) compounds can be easy tailored by using the thin films approach. Particularly, the coercive magnetic field was dramatically decreased making from the PVO compound a nearly soft magnet in the region where the magnetic entropy change is released as well as a considerable increase in saturation magnetization. Accordingly, a giant magnetocaloric effect is exhibited by PVO thin films grown on LSAT substrate at low temperatures showing the great impact of strain effects. This finding opens the way for the implementations of PVO thin films in some specific applications such as on-chip magnetic cooling of a nanoelectronic device and sensor technology. On the other hand, the DFT calculations have confirmed the ground state and the competition between magnetic interactions under compressive strains in PVO thin films. Our result not only suggests that epitaxial PVO thin films is potential for refrigeration at cryogenic temperatures but may also pave the way to create many novel functionalities in perovskite-type transition metal oxides by control of structural aspects.The mechanisms leading to the giant anisotropic magnetocaloric effect observed in HoMn2O5 single crystals are also studied. Both DFT calculations and Monte Carlo simulation allowed us to explore the role of Holmium ions as the main contributor to the MCE as well as the of the importance of the intrinsic anisotropic properties as a promising way to optimize the MCE for magnetic refrigeration application at low temperature regime as well as the implementation of compact and efficient rotary magnetic refrigerators.; L’énergie est indispensable pour l’homme dans la vie quotidienne et essentielle à la croissance économique et au progrès du développement dans les secteurs industriels. Les sources d’énergie mondiales proviennent principalement de ressources fossiles (pétrole, charbons, gaz) qui sont la principale source de pollution atmosphérique locale et l’émetteur des gaz à effet de serre comme le dioxyde de carbone (CO2), responsable en grande partie de l’appauvrissement de la couche d’ozone. Dans le contexte de la pénurie actuelle de ces ressources en raison de l’augmentation continue de la demande d’énergie et alors que les réserves fossiles finiront par s’épuiser, la découverte et le développement d’une technologie à faible émission de carbone deviennent critiques avec la nécessité de décarboniser et réduire notre dépendance aux combustibles fossiles. Une de ces technologies est la réfrigération magnétique basée sur l’effet magnétocalorique (MCE). Au cours de cette thèse, nous avons étudié les propriétés magnétiques et magnétocaloriques des films minces d’oxydes fortement corrélés à structure pérovskite déposés par ablation laser pour les applications de la réfrigération magnétique. Les résultats obtenus montrent que les propriétés magnétiques et magnétocaloriques de composés PrVO3 peuvent être facilement modulées en utilisant l’approche des couches minces. En particulier, le champ magnétique coercitif a considérablement diminué faisant à partir du composé PVO un aimant presque doux dans la région où l’entropie magnétique est libérée ainsi qu’une augmentation considérable de l’aimantation de saturation. En conséquence, un effet magnétocalorique géant est présentée par les films minces de PVO déposés sur un substrat de LSAT à basse température montrant l’impact de l’effet des contraintes épitaxiales. D’autre part, les calculs DFT ont confirmé l’état fondamental et la compétition entre les interactions magnétiques sous contraintes de compression dans PVO films minces. Notre résultat suggère non seulement que les couches minces épitaxiales de PVO sont potentielles pour la réfrigération aux températures cryogéniques mais peuvent également ouvrir la voie à créer de nombreuses nouvelles fonctionnalités dans les oxydes perovskite par le contrôle des aspects structurels. Les mécanismes menant à l’effet magnétocalorique anisotropique géant observé dans les monocristaux du HoMn2O5 sont également étudiés. Les calculs DFT et la simulation de Monte Carlo nous ont permis d’explorer le rôle des ions d’Holmium en tant que principal contributeur au MCE ainsi que l’importance des propriétés anisotropes intrinsèques comme moyen prometteur d’optimiser l’EMC pour l’application de la réfrigération magnétique à basse température ainsi que la mise en œuvre de réfrigérateurs magnétiques rotatifs compacts et efficaces.

In this paper, we propose a new approach for facial expression recognition using deep covariance descriptors. The solution is based on the idea of encoding local and global Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) features extracted from still images, in compact local and global covariance descriptors. The space geometry of the covariance matrices is that of Symmetric Positive Definite (SPD) matrices. By conducting the classification of static facial expressions using Support Vector Machine (SVM) with a valid Gaussian kernel on the SPD manifold, we show that deep covariance descriptors are more effective than the standard classification with fully connected layers and softmax. Besides, we propose a completely new and original solution to model the temporal dynamic of facial expressions as deep trajectories on the SPD manifold. As an extension of the classification pipeline of covariance descriptors, we apply SVM with valid positive definite kernels derived from global alignment for deep covariance trajectories classification. By performing extensive experiments on the Oulu-CASIA, CK+, and SFEW datasets, we show that both the proposed static and dynamic approaches achieve state-of-the-art performance for facial expression recognition outperforming many recent approaches., Comment: A preliminary version of this work appeared in "Otberdout N, Kacem A, Daoudi M, Ballihi L, Berretti S. Deep Covariance Descriptors for Facial Expression Recognition, in British Machine Vision Conference 2018, BMVC 2018, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK, September 3-6, 2018. ; 2018 :159." arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1805.03869

International audience; The primary objectives of the project are the synthesis of new families of heterocyclic compounds based on 8-hydroxyquinolinenamely: 5-((2-bromoethoxy) methyl) quinolin-8-ol (QC2-Br) and 5-((3-bromopropoxy) methyl) quinolin-8-ol (QC3-Br) and their evaluations as inhibitors of acid corrosion (1.0 M HCl).The synthesis of this series of compounds was carried out by a very simple and effective method, but with very good yield and with very good solubility in common organic solvents.The characterization of these new compounds carried out by infrared (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (1H and 13C NMR) and elementary analysis (EA).The anticorrosion activity was evaluated by gravimetric (WL), electrochemical methods (PDP and EIS) and theoretical studies (DFT, MC and MD). The inhibitors studied adsorbed on the metal surface according to Langmuir isotherm and act on the metal surface as inhibitors mixed type. The thermodynamic parameters show that the two inhibitors adsorb on the metal surface by chemical bonds (chemisorptions).A CPE, Q determined by fit and graphical methods plotted by synthetic data, was utilized.The statistical studies were carried out to confirm the gravimetric tests.Gravimetric solutions were analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and UV-visible spectrometry (UV-vis). The surface morphology was characterized by Scanning electronic spectroscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR).The analysis of gravimetric solutions by ICP-OES and UV-visible show that the two inhibitors capable of making chemical bonds with ferric ions and decrease the dissolution of iron in the corrosive solution.The theoretical, experimental results and surface characterization methods show that the two compounds have a good inhibitor of acid corrosion and the inhibitory efficacy exceeds 96% for the two compounds at a concentration of 1 mM.

Superparamagnetic ZnxFe3&minus, xO4 magnetic nanoparticles (0 &le, x &lt, 0.5) with spherical shapes of 16 nm average diameter and different zinc doping level have been successfully synthesized by co-precipitation method. The homogeneous zinc substitution of iron cations into the magnetite crystalline structure has led to an increase in the saturation magnetization of nanoparticles up to 120 Am2/kg for x ~ 0.3. The specific absorption rate (SAR) values increased considerably when x is varied between 0 and 0.3 and then decreased for x ~ 0.5. The SAR values are reduced upon the immobilization of the nanoparticles in a solid matrix being significantly increased by a pre-alignment step in a uniform static magnetic field before immobilization. The SAR values displayed a quadratic dependence on the alternating magnetic field amplitude (H) up to 35 kA/m. Above this value, a clear saturation effect of SAR was observed that was successfully described qualitatively and quantitatively by considering the non-linear field&rsquo, s effects and the magnetic field dependence of both Brown and Neel relaxation times. The Neel relaxation time depends more steeply on H as compared with the Brown relaxation time, and the magnetization relaxation might be dominated by the Neel mechanism, even for nanoparticles with large diameter.

Imaninezhad and Miri introduced the sequence space $ d_{\infty} $ in order to characterize the continuous dual of the sequence space $ bv. $ We show by a counterexample that this claimed characterization is false., Comment: 4 pages

Let $A$ and $B$ be commutative algebras and $n\geqslant 2$ an integer. Then each $n-$ Jordan homomorphism $h:A\rightarrow B$ is an $n-$homomorphism., 3 pages

This study presents an investigation of the structural, magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of the 0.95(La0.45Nd0.25)Sr0.3MnO3/0.05CuO polycrystalline composite. The investigated composite materials are elaborated by combining both solid-state reaction and spray-drying method at the pilot-scale aiming to obtain a homogeneous composite material with controlled morphology and regular particles size. The structure, microstructure, magnetism and magnetocaloric features of the synthesized materials are investigated by using several techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Magnetic measurements. The XRD and SEM data confirm the co-existence of perovskite and copper oxide phases. The magnetization data unveil that the studied composite exhibits a ferromagnetic to paramagnetic transition close to room-temperature (TC = 295 K). More importantly, its magnetocaloric effect in terms of the entropy change remains similar to that of (La0.45Nd0.25)Sr0.3MnO3/0.05CuO only synthesized by the conventional solid-state reaction technique. This points out the possibility of upscaling the production of magnetocaloric oxides to industrial levels using the spray-drying technique.

In this work, we studied inverted organic solar cells based on bulk heterojunction using poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl):[6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) as an active layer and a novel cathode buffer bilayer consisting of tin dioxide (SnO2) combined with polyethylenimine-ethoxylated (PEIE) to overcome the limitations of the single cathode buffer layer. The combination of SnO2 with PEIE is a promising approach that improves the charge carrier collection and reduces the recombination. The efficient device, which is prepared with a cathode buffer bilayer of 20 nm SnO2 combined with 10 nm PEIE, achieved Jsc = 7.86 mA/cm2, Voc = 574 mV and PCE = 2.84%. The obtained results exceed the performances of reference solar cell using only a single cathode layer of either SnO2 or PEIE.

International audience; In this work, we study the variability of the lithological composition and organic matter content of samples were taken from the different layers M, X and Y of the Timahdit oil shale in Morocco, in order to experimentally analyze the impact of this variability on petrophysical measurements. The objective of this study is to predict the properties of the layers, including their thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, porosity and P and S wave velocities. The results of the study of the impact of the organic matter content of the samples on the petrophysical measurements show that, regardless of the organic matter content, thermal conductivity and diffusivity remain insensitive, while P and S wave velocities decrease linearly and porosity increases with increasing organic matter content. On the other hand, the study of the organic matter variability content is consistent with the velocity ratio, so can be used as an organic matter indicator of the layers. Conductivity and thermal diffusivity are almost invariant to the variability of the organic matter.

International audience; Two 8-Hydroxyquinoline-based piperazine, 7-((4-(4-chloro phenyl)piperazin-1-yl) methyl) quinolin-8-ol (CPQ) and 7-((4-methyl piperazin-1-yl) methyl)quinolin-8-ol (MPQ) were prepared, identified and investigated as corrosion inhibiting additives of C35E steel in HCl electrolyte using experimental and theoretical tools. All outcomes findings confirm that CPQ and MPQ significantly improved anti-corrosion properties of C35E steel and CPQ performed better than MPQ and their inhibition efficiency depends on the temperature, the amount, and the chemical structure of the inhibitor. The ηmax of CPQ and MPQ reaches as much as 91.5% and 86.3% at 10−3 M, respectively. EIS outcomes revealed that the corrosion of C35E steel is controlled by only one charge transfer mechanism and the adsorbed CPQ and MPQ molecules decreased the steel dissolution by developing a pseudo-capacitive film on the steel surface. Both additives revealed mixed-type inhibitory activity, lowering of cathodic and anodic corrosion reactions rate, as proposed from the polarization investigation. The UV–Visible spectra suggest the existence of strong interaction between iron cations and 7-(4-alkylpiperazinylmethyl)-8-Hydroxyquinolines molecules. The 7-(4-alkylpiperazinylmethyl)-8-Hydroxyquinolines were chemisorbed on the C35E steel surface in accordance with Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Temperature influence studies of CPQ and MPQ adsorption behavior, as well as estimated thermodynamic magnitudes, are consistent with a physisorption process. The computational correlations (DFT, Monte Carlo, and Molecular Dynamic simulations) justify the experimental observations.

This work is devoted to investigating the magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of La0.45Nd0.25Sr0.3MnO3-CuO composite prepared by the solid-state reaction with various concentration of CuO (2 wt.%, 5 wt.%, and 10 wt.%). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques were used to identify the obtained structural phases and microstructural morphologies in the prepared pellets. A second-order transition was observed with critical a temperature around 294 K for 2 wt.% and 10 wt.% and 321 K for 5 wt.% of the CuO phase in the composite. Magnetic entropy changes in La0.45Nd0.25Sr0.3MnO3-CuO composites were calculated using the Maxwell approximation around the magnetic transition. The highest values of magnetic entropy change were found for 5 wt.% of CuO in La0.45Nd0.25Sr0.3MnO3-CuO pellet composites which is attributed to the localization of the copper oxide in the grains boundaries of La0.45Nd0.25Sr0.3MnO3 perovskite.

The ASPIS Iron 88 campaign performed in the NESTOR facility studied deep neutron propagation in mild steel. Several plates of 5 cm thickness were used as a neutron shielding next to a fission plate. Gold, indium, rhodium, sulphur and aluminium detectors, positioned between two consecutive steel plates, were used. This experiment is interpreted with the TRIPOLI-4® Monte-Carlo code, using the JEFF-3.1.1 and JEFF-3.2 nuclear data libraries. The ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JENDL-4.0 evaluations for iron 56 were also used for comparison. Results show good agreement between the calculation and the experiment for all detectors but the sulphur one. An attempt to calculate sensitivities and uncertainties to nuclear data was made with both the ERANOS deterministic code and TRIPOLI-4®. The results show that these uncertainties increase with the threshold of the studied reaction, reaching more than 30% for the sulphur detector.

In this work, the structural, magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of 0.95La0.45Nd0.25Sr0.3MnO3/0.05CuO composites materials were investigated. The samples have been synthesized by solid-state reaction route. The XRD patterns of composites powders show the presence of both perovskite La0.45Nd0.25Sr0.3MnO3 and monoclinic Tenorite CuO materials. The microstructural characterization performed using Scanning Electron Microscope shows that copper oxide nanostructure is located in the grains boundaries after pressing. According to the isothermal magnetization measurements around the Curie temperature, the maximum isothermal magnetic entropy change is calculated to be 4.128 J/(Kg.K) at 5 T for the pellet with an interesting enhancement compared to the powder sample 2.7 J/(Kg.K). The relative cooling power is about 212.8 J Kg−1. Resistivity measurements under different magnetic fields were performed in order to investigate the magnetoresistance properties. The obtained magnetocaloric properties show that 0.95La0.45Nd0.25Sr0.3MnO3/0.05CuO composite was an attractive candidate material for magnetic refrigeration application. About magnetoresistance properties the (% MR) is found to be 32.78% around 320 K under a magnetic field of 5 T.

Background Zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is endemic in the Mediterranean basin. However, large-scale comparative analyses of the commercial kits for the serological diagnosis of this neglected disease are lacking. This study compared the performances of four enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and two immunochromatographic tests (ICT) as screening tests for the serodiagnosis of human VL in the Mediterranean region. Methodology/Principal findings Serum samples from 319 patients living in France, Tunisia or Morocco were tested using two ICT (IT LEISH and TruQuick LEISH IgG/IgM Meridian) and four ELISA reagents (NovaLisa Leishmania infantum IgG, Bordier Leishmania infantum, Ridascreen Leishmania IgG, and Vircell Leishmania). The population with proven VL (n = 181) included 65 immunocompromised patients. Significantly higher percentages of false-negative results were obtained with all assays in immunocompromised patients, compared with the immunocompetent population. In the whole population, sensitivity and specificity ranged from 80.7% to 93.9% and from 95.7% to 100%, respectively. The maximum accuracy was observed with the Bordier and Vircell ELISA kits (96.2%), and the lowest accuracy with Ridascreen reagent (88.7%). New thresholds of positivity are proposed for the Bordier, Vircell and NovaLisa ELISA kits to achieve 95% sensitivity with the highest possible specificity. Western blot (WB), used as a confirmation method, showed 100% sensitivity and identified 10.1% of asymptomatic carriers among the control population from the South of France. Conclusions/Significance This is the first study that compared commercially available kits for VL serodiagnosis in the endemic region of the Mediterranean basin. It provides specific information about the tests’ performance to help clinicians and biologists to select the right assay for VL screening., Author summary Human visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a neglected disease endemic in the Mediterranean region, caused by Leishmania infantum. Accurate VL diagnosis is critical for rapid and correct patient management. Various serological tests are used, including commercial kits that require qualifications with specific information about their performance. In this study, we compared the performance of six commercial kits, two immunochromatographic tests (ICT; IT LEISH and TruQuick LEISH IgG/IgM Meridian) and four enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA; NovaLisa Leishmania infantum IgG, Bordier Leishmania infantum, Ridascreen Leishmania IgG, and Vircell Leishmania), available in France and used as screening tests. The Bordier and Vircell ELISA reagents displayed the highest analytic performance compared with all the other kits. However, no test displayed 95% sensitivity at the thresholds recommended by the manufacturers. To reach this sensitivity value with the highest possible specificity, new thresholds are proposed for the Bordier, Vircell and NovaLisa ELISA reagents. Positive and negative results obtained with the six screening tests were confirmed by Western blot (100% sensitivity). Overall, this study presents a comparative analysis of commercially available kits for the serodiagnosis of human VL and provides additional information on the prevalence of asymptomatic carriers in the Mediterranean basin.

International audience; Hydrophobic apatite monolith nanoparticles were prepared by grafting of dodecylphosphate (DP) onto hydroxyapatite. A modification in the synthesis was used to develop a hydrophobic surface in order to improve the dispersion and compatibility of organoapatite particles for the sensing and separation of hydrophobic substances. Results indicate that DP grafting onto the apatite is quantitative. Structural analyses of the as-received materials show that the grafting approach did not significantly alter the apatite microstructure, but modifies the hydrophobic character and surface properties of the hybrid material. Conversion of the hydrophilic surface of hydroxyapatite to hydrophobic was carried out to better retain naphthalene as a polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon model.

International audience; Crosstalk is an undesirable phenomenon having a negative impact on the electroacoustic performance of ultrasonic transducer arrays, utilized in medical imaging and NDT applications. Indeed, when one element of a transducer array is excited, it generates parasitic voltages and/or displacement fields on the adjacent passive elements. Consequently, these interactions between elements (crosstalk) are responsible for anomalous in the electromechanical behavior of the transducer array. The goal of this paper is to investigate the effects of the electrical limit conditions, i.e. when the passive neighboring elements are considered in Open-Circuit or Short-Circuit (as in the case of the crosstalk's active cancellation techniques), on the physical behavior of the array elements. This research work also studies the impact of the limit conditions on the crosstalk's evaluation. In this context, a piezoelectric transducer array composed of seven elements made of PZ27 ceramic is modeled using a two-dimensional finite elements method. A prototype is then fabricated and experimental measurements, i.e. electrical impedance, displacement, and crosstalk measurements are realized and successfully compared to the numerical results.

International audience; The purpose of this study was to perform a discrimination and classification of diesel samples from the four major suppliers of petroleum products in Morocco using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and chemometrics tools. Eighty diesel samples were collected from different gas stations owned by the four biggest brands in the Moroccan market. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed to depict the similarities between the samples and check the presence of outliers. Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) models were set up for the discrimination and the classification of the four groups of samples (i.e., diesel suppliers). The models proposed in this study, were characterized by good prediction abilities, especially the FTIR-PLSDA model that was characterized by 100% of accurate discrimination of the four groups. The approach of analysis showed that the FTIR spectra can provide a cheap and rapid means for the determination of the diesel origin and to ensure the traceability of diesel products marketed in Morocco with respect for the rules of the green chemistry.

International audience; Silicene, a new 2D material has attracted intense research because of the ubiquitous use of silicon in modern technology. However, producing free‐standing silicene has proved to be a huge challenge. Until now, silicene could be synthesized only on metal surfaces where it naturally forms strong interactions with the metal substrate that modify its electronic properties. Here, the authors report the first experimental evidence of silicene nanoribbons on an insulating NaCl thin film. This work represents a major breakthrough, for the study of the intrinsic properties of silicene, and by extension to other 2D materials that have so far only been grown on metal surfaces.

International audience; The purpose of this paper is to examine the phonological and morphological patterning of geminates in Moroccan Arabic (MA), using the constraint-based framework of Optimality Theory. In particular, the central aim of this work is to uncover the constraint interactions responsible for the creation and distribution of the geminate patterns attested in MA. The questions we seek to answer are: (a) What motivates the occurrence of geminates in MA? (b) How can a sequence of non-identical consonants be transformed into a geminate consonant? (c) What is the role of gemination in word formation?

International audience; To develop potent and selective anticancer agents, a series of novel polysubstituted indazoles was synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antiproliferative and apoptotic activities against two selected human cancer cell lines (A2780 and A549). Several compounds showed an interesting antiproliferative activity, with IC50 values ranging from 0.64 to 17 µM against both cell lines. The most active indazoles were then tested in different pharmacological dilution conditions, adding five new cell lines (A2780, A549, IMR32, MDA-MB-231, and T47D) as targets, confirming their antiproliferative activity. Furthermore, selected compounds were able to trigger apoptosis to a significant extent and to cause, in part, a block of cells in the S phase of the cell cycle, with a concomitant decrease of cells in the G2/M and/or G0/G1 phases and the generation of hypodiploid peaks. However, molecule 7d caused a great increase of cells in G2/M and the appearance of polyploid cells. Altogether, our results suggest a good pharmacological activity for our selected polysubstituted indazoles, which are suggestive of a preferential mechanism of action as cell cycle-specific antimetabolites or as an inhibitor of enzyme activities involved in DNA synthesis, except for 7d, which, on the contrary, seems to have a mechanism involving the microtubule system.

In many urban areas where road drivers are suffering from the huge road traffic flow, conventional traffic management methods have become inefficient. One alternative is to let road-side units or vehicles learn how to calculate the optimal path based on the traffic situation. This work aims to provide the optimal path in terms of travel time for the vehicles seeking to reach their destination avoiding road traffic congestion and in the least possible time. In this paper we apply a reinforcement learning technique, in particular Q-learning, that is employed to learn the best action to take in different situations, where the transiting delay from a state to another is used to determinate the rewards. The simulation results confirm that the proposed Q-learning approach outperformed the greedy existing algorithm and present better performances.

International audience; The states of a single dopant centre in zinc-blende GaN-based conical quantum dots with spherical cap are theoretically investigated by analytically solving the corresponding effective mass equation taking advantage of the localisation of the ionised impurity at the cone apex. Nonlinear optical response is analysed through the calculation of the coefficients of optical absorption, relative refractive index change, and second and third harmonic generation, for the chosen set of allowed electron-donor states. The behaviour of the calculated optical quantities under changes in the geometry of the system due to variations in apical width and quantum dot radius is analysed and discussed.

International audience; Recently, a reversible and a giant rotating magnetocaloric effect has been pointed out in the multiferroic TbMn 2 O 5 single crystal, opening the way for new designs of low-temperature magnetic cooling. In this paper, we report a preliminary theoretical work with the aim of enlarging our understanding on the electronic, magnetic and accordingly magnetocaloric features of the TbMn 2 O 5 compound. Particularly, the TbMn 2 O 5 magnetic anisotropy is analyzed in terms of X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) spectra.