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New anodes consisting of zirconium-doped PbO2 coating, growth on titanium dioxide interlayer, were deposited on titanium substrates using spin coating method and have been tested for the removal of ampicillin, a β-lactam antibiotic, from water. Morphological, structural, and electrochemical properties of the prepared coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and electrochemical impendence spectroscopy (EIS). Results showed that the incorporation of zirconium dopant had a noticeable modification in the morphology of anodes. An increase in the surface roughness and the specific active area were observed with Ti/TiO2/PbO2- 10% Zr electrode compared to other anodes. The electrochemical measurements indicated that the anode doped with 10% Zr showed a more protective coating performance than the undoped and 20% Zr-doped PbO2 electrodes. The experiments on ampicillin degradation revealed that doped lead dioxide anodes have excellent electrocatalytic activity. The major byproduct generated during anodic oxidation treatment has been identified as ampicilloic acid by liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC–MS) analysis. Results demonstrated that Ti/TiO2/PbO2- 10% Zr anode presents the best removal rate of ampicillin with a minimum intermediate amount, which leads to conclude that 10% is the optimum percentage of zirconium dopant for antibiotic wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Person re-identification (re-id) attempts to match a person from the images of different time steps. Existing deep learning approaches either use appearance or geometry features for re-id which does not provide the required robustness because of higher intra-class similarity. Existing supervised re-id approaches utilize Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and identity-labeled images to train, where the person images are taken by the sensors from a horizontal view. The horizontal view exposes the privacy of the people because of their facial appearance in the image. Moreover, person re-id includes new unseen people; however, CNN does not have the ability to identify the new unseen people because of a lack of continual learning. Privacy-preserved computer vision-assisted person re-id systems can benefit from visual appearance and geometry features extracted from top-view RGB and depth input. This paper presents the privacy-preserved person top-view re-id few-shot network which uses the appearance and geometry features. The EfficientNet is used for appearance-based features from RGB input, while PointNet is used to extract the geometry features from the point cloud which is made from the RGB-D image registration. Concatenated features from EfficientNet and PointNet are fed to the two-layer Bi-LSTM network for person identification. Finally, the whole network is converted into a few-shot network to achieve continual learning by removing the output layer and joining the similarity measurement unit. This approach is based on CNN and fine-tunes a TVPR/2 dataset acquired by using a top-view arrangement that is publicly available. The experimental results on TVPR/2 and GODPR datasets show that the proposed re-id network outperforms other state-of-the-art networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the emergence of big data, the popularity of deep learning models has increased and they are being implemented in a wide range of applications, including people detection and counting in congested environments. Detecting and counting people for human behavior analysis in retail stores is a challenging research problem due to the congested and crowded environment. This paper proposes a deep learning approach for detecting and counting people in the presence of occlusions and illuminance variation in a crowded retail environment, utilizing deep CNNs (DCNNs) for semantic segmentation of top-view depth visual data. Semantic segmentation has been implemented using (DCNNs) in recent years since it is a powerful approach. The objective of this paper is to design a novel architecture that consists of an encoder–decoder architecture. We were motivated to use transfer learning to solve the problem of insufficient training data. We used ResNet50 for the encoder, and we built the decoder part as a novel contribution. Our model was trained and evaluated on the TVHeads dataset and the people counting dataset (PCDS) that are available for research purposes. It consists of depth data of people captured from a top-view RGB-D sensor. The segmentation results indicate high accuracy and demonstrate that the proposed model is robust and accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The applications of flax fibre-reinforced polymers are becoming widely prevalent, particularly in the industrial sector. Generally, damage in composite material represents one of the predominant behavioural phases. The present paper aims to characterize this phenomenon and its related mechanisms in flax/Elium laminate composite using both linear and nonlinear vibration testing. Methods: This study was based on vibration testing applied for two composite configurations, namely cross-ply and unidirectional. The bio-composite samples were processed by the liquid resin infusion technique. Linear vibration excitations were carried on using an impact hammer. However, the nonlinear ones were achieved using a shaker. Experimental tests were realised for virgin and damaged composites during tensile testing. Results: The results of linear measurements indicated a frequency shift towards lower frequencies as the damage rate increased. Nonlinear measurements allowed the determination of two nonlinear parameters: the first being an elastic nonlinear parameter associated with the frequency shift, and the second being a dissipative nonlinear parameter related to the damping shift. The results demonstrated that the nonlinear resonance method exhibited greater sensitivity to the presence of damage compared to the linear resonance method. Conclusions: This study leads to distinguish the effectiveness of the nonlinear resonance method as a non-destructive technique for monitoring the structural health of bio-composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Plastic materials have a significant impact on the entire environment. Very relevant ideas in different areas with the aim of enhancing these materials and making them effective in our daily lives. In this context, our work in this article by using plastic materials in the manufacture of hydrophobic membranes realized in our Laboratory LEEP Enig Gabes Tunisia, followed by various analyses. These membranes are made of a Recycled Low-Density Polyethylene polymer by means of the Thermal Induced Phase Separation (TIPS) method by using solvents such as Butyl Acetate, non-solvent Hexane with the addition of Alumina at different concentrations to increase porosity. Results: Hydrophobic membranes are coupled to the vacuum still to test their performance. An analytical study by FTIR was done. Contact angle, pore size, porosity, mechanical test, bubble point pressure, AFM and SEM analysis. The results revealed that the addition of alumina had an important role in improving the structure, properties and therefore the performance of the membrane. Conclusions: The membrane already prepared admits according to the analyzes tested a good porosity, hydrophobicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, obesity has grown to epidemic proportions worldwide. It has been associated with an increased risk for different types of cancer. In addition, obesity has been associated with a poor prognosis, an increased risk of metastasis and mortality, and resistance to anti-cancer therapies. The pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the obesity-cancer connection have not yet been fully elucidated. However, this connection could result, at least in part, from the action of adipokines, whose levels are increased in obesity. Among these adipokines, evidence suggests leptin's critical role in linking obesity to cancer. In this review, we first summarize the current state of the literature regarding the implication of leptin in tumorigenic processes. Next, we focus on the effects of leptin on the anti-tumor immune response. Then, we discuss the influence of leptin on the efficiency of antineoplastic treatments and the development of tumor resistance. Finally, we highlight the use of leptin as a potential target for the prevention and treatment of cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driver drowsiness is the major cause of many traffic accidents. A study by the National Institute of Sleep and Vigilance showed that the majority of the accidents took place on fast tracks. 34% of these accidents are mainly due to lack of sleep. Indeed, the drowsiness of drivers appears mainly by a fall of vigilance with the appearance of various behaviors that represent clues for the decrease of reflexes like the presence of yawning, heaviness of the eyelids and the difficulty to keep the head in frontal position compared to the vision field. In this context, we are interested particularly in the proposal of new solutions allowing the automatic control of the driver drowsiness states. These solutions need to be non-invasive while being based only on the analysis of the visual indices. These indices are calculated starting from the spatiotemporal information of the contents of a video stream. The main goal of our work is to recognize driver abnormal behavior by analyzing the characteristics of the face. In fact, we have proposed a fusion system based on detection of yawn, detection of somnolence and the 3D head pose estimation. This fusion system is evaluated by the three databases and shows many success of our suggested approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biochars produced from exhausted grape marc waste were considered a potential source for agriculture biofertilization. Results indicated that the biochar application did not show a significant effect on ryegrass fresh weight increase. The pyrolysis temperature influenced the fresh and dry matter yield since it interferes with phosphorus bioavailability for plant growth. Potassium intakes were positively affected but not statistically significant. The % of soil stable aggregates decreased after 60 days. In the short term, there is no significant effect on soil structural stability. Biochar incorporation led to domination of large macro-aggregates, which are instables compared with small macro-aggregates. A dose of 15 t ha−1 considerably reduced the leached soil and thus improved water retention by changing soil porosity. Soil pH and electric conductivity markedly increased for all treatments after 60 days of incubation. Biochar extract had a significant inhibitory effect on Fusarium oxysporum and Phytophthora sp. The use of exhausted grape marc waste to produce a biochar has shown a good potential for carbon and water sequestration in soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coagulation–flocculation process is widely used as a pretreatment step in the agri-food industry, particularly in oily wastewater such as that produced by poultry industry, to remove oil particles, organic, and nutrient fractions. The optimization of the operating conditions of this treatment process is a crucial step, which affects the performance of the treatment and the design of the other treatment steps. In this study, different coagulants were tested mainly Al2SO4, FeCl3, MgCl2, CaCl2, and NH4SO4. It was found that iron chloride presented the highest removal efficiency for the turbidity and the chemical oxygen demand (COD). The response surface methodology investigated the interaction of three factors: the coagulant concentration (X1), flocculent dosage (X2), and initial pH (X3), and the responses were COD removal (Y1) and residual turbidity (Y2). The determined optimal operating conditions were FeCl3 dose = 400 mg L−1, flocculent dose = 46 mg L−1, and pH = 5.88. Under the optimal conditions, a COD removal of 79% and turbidity removal of 94% were achieved with high variance coefficient (R2) values of 0.942 and 0.964 for COD and turbidity removals, respectively. Moreover, the Germination Index (GI) of the poultry slaughterhouse wastewater (PSWW) evaluated with Lactuca sativa was improved from 22.35 to 64.65% in the treated wastewater.Article Highlights: Common coagulants used in agri-food industry were tested for the treatment of poultry slaughterhouse wastewater. FeCl3 was identified as the most efficient coagulant in terms of turbidity and COD removal. Response surface methodology through central composite design was used for the optimization of the coagulation flocculation process. The phytotoxicity assessment was investigated through the germination index of Lactuca sativa seeds. The treated poultry slaughterhouse wastewater fits with the Tunisian norm of discharge into the sewer system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hemorrhoidal disease is a common reason for consultation in proctology. It can be treated in several ways (medical, endoscopic, and surgical). Laser treatment has been described since 1960 and has developed in recent years. The purpose of this literature review was to study the results of laser treatment of hemorrhoids and to compare them with those of surgical methods. We performed a systematic search of the literature by querying the Medline, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library databases. Retrospective studies and case reports were excluded. We selected 11 studies both techniques HeLP (hemorrhoid laser procedure) and LHP (laser hemorrhoidoplasty procedure). The total number of patients was 1179 including 1059 patients treated with laser and 120 treated surgically within the context of comparative studies. The age of the patients varies between 18 and 74 years old. HeLP laser treatment was significantly superior to surgical treatment in terms of postoperative pain (p < 0.001), hemorrhoidal disease downgrading (p < 0.001), and postoperative satisfaction (p < 0.001). Similarly, LHP laser treatment was significantly superior to surgical treatment in terms of operative duration (p < 0.00001), intraoperative bleeding (p < 0.00001), postoperative pain at H12 and H24 (p < 0.00001 and p = 0.0003), and postoperative bleeding rate (p < 0.001). The laser represents a revolution in the field of proctology mainly in the treatment of hemorrhoidal pathology. It is a safe, effective, and less painful mini-invasive technique. More rigorous studies will be needed to better evaluate this technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquivion membrane displays improved properties as compared to Nafion membrane, partly due to shorter side chains. However, some improvements are still necessary for proton exchange membrane fuel cell to operate at low relative humidity. To overcome this drawback, the addition of clay nanoparticle into the Aquivion matrix can be considered. In this study, different composite membranes have been prepared mixing short-side-chain PFSA (perfluorosulfonic acid) Aquivion and selectively modified halloysite nanotubes for PEMFC low relative humidity operation. Halloysites were grafted with fluorinated groups, sulfonated groups, or perfluoro-sulfonated groups on inner or outer surface of the tubes. The obtained composite membranes showed improved properties, especially higher water uptake associated with reduced swelling and better mechanical strength compared to pristine Aquivion membrane and commercially available Nafion HP used as reference. The best performance in this study was obtained with Aquivion loaded with 5 wt% of pretreated perfluoro-sulfonated halloysite. The composite membrane, referred to as Aq/pHNT-SF5, displayed the largest water uptake and proton conductivity among the panel of membranes tested. The chemical stability was not affected by the presence of halloysite in the Aquivion matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigation proposes a new method for sustainable olive mill wastewater (OMW) treatment and handling. It is based on the combination of its impregnation onto raw cypress sawdust (RCS) followed by electrocoagulation. The retention of OMW compounds onto various RCS doses show an important decrease of its chemical oxygen demand (COD) and its main cation and anion content. The maximum retention efficiencies of COD, Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl−, PO 4 3 − , and SO 4 2 − were about 51.0%, 75.3%, 28.7%, 77.9%, 84.7%, 41.1%, 98.3%, and 90.9%, respectively, for the highest RCS dose (200 g L−1). This organic matter- and nutrient-loaded biomass could be thermochemically converted through pyrolysis into biofuel and biochar for energetic and agronomic purposes, respectively. The treatment by electrocoagulation of the pre-treated OMW using mild steel electrodes could be considered an attractive treatment method since 75.6% of COD removal efficiency was achieved. Besides, this approach permits a significant energy consumption reduction by 46% as compared with the electrocoagulation process alone. It allows also a significant improvement of the treated effluent quality in terms of both organic and mineral contents that could be reused for the irrigation of olive trees in the context of circular economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methylene blue (MB) desorption from alkali-treated orange tree sawdust (ATOS) adsorbent was investigated under different experimental conditions. For an initial MB adsorbed amount of 63.78 mg g−1 and an initial aqueous pH of 6.0, the experimental data showed that MB desorption is time dependent and increases with NaCl concentration. A maximal desorption yield of 65% was reached after 120 min for a 1 M NaCl concentration. These experimental data were successfully fitted by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R2 ≈ 1 and APE < 1.155%), indicating that MB desorption mechanism involved mainly an ion exchange process between liquid and solid phases. Moreover, the effect of initially adsorbed dye concentration on MB desorption efficiency was apprehended for five successive desorption steps. The experimental results showed that MB release in the bulk solution followed a non-singular adsorption/desorption isotherm that become more intense with the increase in the initially retained dye amounts onto ATOS. The theoretical required number of MB desorption steps for a total regeneration of ATOS noticeably decreased from 575 when using distilled water to only 50 steps with NaCl aqueous solutions (0.5 M) as desorbing eluent. FTIR analysis showed the involvement of the hydroxyl and carboxylic functional groups in the sorption process. Ionic chromatography analysis presented a decrease in the aqueous solution concentration in Na+ and Cl− ions by 46% and 48%, respectively, which emphasizes on their migration onto the solid phase. These results confirmed that MB desorption is most likely driven by a cationic exchange mechanism between dye molecules and sodium ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests a new alternative for the acceleration of dye removal by adopting alternating current instead of direct current in the treatment of methylene blue solutions and industrials effluents, using anodic oxidation on Pb/PbO2 and stainless steel (SS)/PbO2 anodes. A comparative study of the influence of electrolyte support (NaCl, NaNO3, and Na2SO4) on the anodic oxidation performance and the anode stability was performed. The best results were obtained in presence of NaCl where the color removal percentage reached about 80.13% and 55.8%, for Pb/PbO2 anodes, and 89.5% and 60.4% for the SS/PbO2 anodes for alternating and direct current, respectively. Treatment in alternating current conditions enhanced the removal speed. Atomic absorption analysis confirmed the decrease of the release of (Pb2+) ions to much lower values compared with direct current and to those allowed by the Standards. LC/MS and phytotoxicity analyses confirmed the non-toxicity of the generated by-products during the anodic oxidation of methylene blue and the possibility of the reuse of the treated water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Febrile neutropenia (FN) is the main reason for antibiotic prescription in hematology wards where, on the other hand, antibiotic stewardship (AS) is poorly explored. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate (1) the impact of an AS intervention on antibiotic consumption and (2) the applicability and acceptance rate of the intervention and its clinical impact. A persuasive AS intervention based on European Conference on Infection in Leukaemia (ECIL) guidelines for FN was implemented in a high-risk hematology ward in a tertiary referral public university hospital. This included the creation and diffusion of flow charts on de-escalation and discontinuation of antibiotics for FN, and the introduction in the team of a doctor dedicated to the implementation of flow charts and to antibiotic prescription revision. All consecutive patients receiving antibiotics during hospitalization were included. A segmented linear regression model was performed for the evaluation of antibiotic consumption, taking into account 1-year pre-intervention period and 6-month intervention period. Overall, 137 consecutive antibiotic prescriptions were re-evaluated, 100 prescriptions were for FN. A significant reduction of the level of carbapenem consumption was observed during the intervention period (level change (estimate coefficient ± standard error) = − 135.28 ± 59.49; p = 0.04). Applicability and acceptability of flow charts were high. No differences in terms of intensive care unit transfers, bacteremia incidence, and mortality were found. A persuasive AS intervention in hematology significantly reduced carbapenem consumption without affecting outcome and was well accepted. This should encourage further applications of ECIL guidelines for FN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An unsteady numerical analysis has been conducted to study the strong interaction between impeller blade and volute tongue of a centrifugal pump. The 3-D-URANS equations were solved with the shear stress transport turbulence model for a wide range of flow rates. These unsteady interactions are mostly related to the unsteady radial force due to an imbalance in the pressure field at the impeller periphery. This force represents dynamic load that are one of the most important sources of vibration and hydraulic noise. Based on this phenomenon, this work analyzes and gives a more realistic prediction of the pressure fluctuation and the radial force during steady and unsteady calculation by considering the effect of the change in the pump operating point. Actually, the pressure fluctuations in the impeller and the volute were recorded by mounting nine monitoring points on the impeller and volute casing. The results of the existing analysis has proven that the pressure fluctuation is periodic due to the relative position of impeller blade to volute tongue. The characteristics of the time domain and frequency domain of the pressure pulsation were analyzed under different coupling conditions. Fast Fourier transform was performed to obtain the spectra of pressure pulsation. Besides, the steady and unsteady forces were calculated around the impeller periphery to fully characterize the pump behavior. The obtained pump performance curves were numerically compared with the experimental ones, and the outcome have shown an acceptable agreement between both curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The study investigated the association between plasma homocysteine, folate and vitamin B12 with 5,10 methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR C677T and A1298C), thymidylate synthase (TYMS 2R → 3R) and methionine synthase (MTR A2756G) polymorphisms and methotrexate (MTX) treatment and toxicity in Tunisian Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.Methods: A total of 185 patients with RA were included. Homocysteine (Hcy) was assessed by fluorescence polarization immunoassay, and folate and vitamin B12 were measured by chemiluminescence immunoassays. The genetic polymorphisms were analyzed by PCR or PCR-RFLP. Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHC) was considered for Hcy > 15 µmol/L.Results: MTHFR C677T polymorphism was associated with HHC in RA patients (multi-adjusted OR, 95% CI 2.18, [1.07-4.57]; p = 0.031). No association was detected with the remaining polymorphisms. Plasma Hcy, folate, and vitamin B12 did not differ according to each polymorphism, or with MTX treatment or toxicity. However, HHC was more prevalent in patients with than those without MTX toxicity (32.7 vs. 16.7%; p = 0.035).Conclusions: The MTHFR 677TT genotype is an independent risk factor for HHC in Tunisians RA patients. HHC could be a useful marker of MTX toxicity in RA patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel algorithm is proposed for balancing water looped network in steady state through a fully automated general framework of hydraulic networks regardless of their topological complexity. The model is developed by combining the following two steps, firstly a set of independent loops are identified based on a graph theoretical analysis in a looped network. Further the second step is devoted to the equilibrium process by determining the flow rate distribution within the network ducts and the pressure in the delivery nodes. The above such equilibrium process gives rise to a system of non linear algebraic equations which are solved numerically using both Hardy Cross (HC) and Newton Raphson (NR) methods. In HC method, the flow correction term is modified and a generalized expression is given to consider various possibilities of independent loops selection. Some real networks topologies that were commonly used as benchmarks, for testing various independent loops selection algorithms, are taken as case studies to apply the general automatic framework for hydraulic network analysis. Such network analysis enhances proving the applicability as well as the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Also, during the equilibrium procedure, it is proved that NR method is capable of producing accurate results and it converges more rapidly comparing to the widely used HC method. Moreover, it is demonstrated that NR's iterative process, contrary to HC's one, converges to reliable results even with a choice of random initial flow rates which makes a NR algorithm quite simple to implement without affecting the accuracy of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a mathematical formulation for analyzing the steady state behavior of a binary mixture of hydrogen-natural gas in pipelines networks. Throughout the paper, natural gas flow is assumed to be pure methane (CH4) flow as the latter is the main component of natural gas. The model development is based on a new correlation for compressibility factor of gas mixture. The built correlation is reposed on the resolution of Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK) Equation Of State (EOS). The compressibility factor, numerical solution of real gas EOS, is validated through a comparison with experimental values issued from gas compressibility charts as well as empirical results inspired by analytical expressions. Basing on the established expression for the compressibility factor, continuity and motions equations are integrated in steady state. Thus, a pressure drop expression is given. The latter is used to balance a looped network of hydrogen-natural gas mixture. The implemented algorithm of looped network balancing is reposed on resolution of nodes and loops equations using Newton-Raphson method. Pressure and velocity evolutions along the network ducts are followed up, and thus, the effect of hydrogen injection in natural gas network is analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigated the electrochemical treatment of four real effluents which were municipal wastewater (MWW), human urine (HU), river water (Wadi), and slaughterhouse wastewater (SHWW). The treatment was performed on a Boron-Doped Diamond (BDD) as anode/cathode material with an applied current density of 35.7 mA cm and without any reagent addition. Effluent characterization before treatment indicated that nitrogen pollution existed essentially as ammonium/ammonia ions, low level of nitrate, and in some cases as nitrite form. Organic pollution was also determined by COD values which were 920, 7300, 320, and 2280 mg O L for MWW, HU, Wadi, and SHWW effluents, respectively. The effectiveness of the electrochemical oxidation/reduction was assessed by nitrogenous compounds and COD removals. Obtained removals underlined the simultaneous oxidation and reduction at the BDD interfaces of the main species present in the real effluents as well as the electro-generated ones. Results confirmed the high performance of BDD electrode for removal of coexistent pollutants from the studied matrix. The oxidation of organic matter and ammonium/ammonia as well as the kinetic of COD degradation was rapid in acidic medium (HU case) than that in neutral and alkaline medium (MWW, Wadi, and SHWW). Moreover, the phytotoxicity test showed less toxic behavior only in the cases of MWW and SHWW with a Germination Index equal to 58.8 and 72.2 %, respectively. The EC and ACE were also evaluated for all studied wastewaters, and the lowest EC value (0.03 kWh (g COD)) was obtained for the more charged effluent (HU). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the alkaline modification of raw orange tree sawdust (ROS) for an optimal removal of methylene blue (MB), as a cationic dye model, from synthetic solutions. The effects of operating parameters, namely, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) concentrations, ROS doses in NaOH solutions, stirring times, and initial MB concentrations on dye removal efficiency, were followed in batch mode. The process optimization was performed through the response surface methodology approach (RSM) by using Minitab17 software. The results showed that the order of importance of the followed parameters was NaOH treatment concentrations > stirring times > initial MB concentrations > ROS doses in NaOH solutions. The optimal experimental conditions ensuring the maximal MB removal efficiency was found for a NaOH treatment concentration of 0.14 M, a stirring time of 1 h, a ROS dose in NaOH solutions of 50 g L, and an initial MB concentration of 69.5 mg L. Specific analyses of the raw and alkali-treated biomasses, e.g., SEM/EDS and XRD analyses, demonstrated an important modification of the crystalline structure of the wooden material and a significant increase in its surface basic functional groups. Kinetic and isotherm studies of MB removal from synthetic solutions by ROS and the alkali-treated material (ATOS) showed that for both adsorbents, the pseudo-second-order and Langmuir model fitted the best the experimental data, respectively, which indicates that MB removal might be mainly a chemical and a monolayer process. Furthermore, thanks to the chemical modification of the ROS, the MB maximal uptake capacity has increased from about 39.7 to 78.7 mg g. On the other hand, due to the competition phenomenon, the coexistence of MB and Zn(II) ions could significantly decrease the MB removal efficiency. A maximal decrease of about 32 % was registered for an initial Zn(II) concentration of 140 mg L. Desorption experiments undertaken at natural pH (without adjustment: pH = 6) and with different NaCl concentrations emphasized that the adsorbed MB could be significantly desorbed from both the tested materials, offering their possible reuse as efficient adsorbents. All these results confirmed that NaOH-treated orange tree sawdust could be considered as an efficient, economic, and ecological alternative for the removal of cationic dyes from industrial wastewaters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-speed milling operation is widely used in industry for the production of aircraft parts, molds, and dies. The machining based on the polynomial programming (especially Bezier or basic spline (Bspline) and cubic spline (Cspline)) brings an interesting gain in cycle time. However, part quality can be degraded by using this type of programming. In this paper, we suggest a simulation methodology for errors caused by the interpolations: Bspline and Cspline in high-speed machining of warped shapes. To do this, we have developed analytical models expressing the basic paths of these interpolations. Then, we have designed a simulation tool based on these models. Experimental verifications have been done to validate our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editors discuss various articles published within the issue on such topics as response surface methodology (RSM) in wastewater treatment, solar photocatalytic inactivation, and humic acid.

The development of new reconstruction methods of acoustic sources presents a domain of great interest seen its applications in reducing the noise, realizing the acoustic comfort and diagnosing systems. The duct systems are used in several systems such as building, ventilation and aeronautic systems. In this work, a new reconstruction technique of the acoustic sources in duct systems is presented. This technique is based on the multimodal scattering matrix that provides an estimation of the acoustic power dissipation and attenuation in the case of a point acoustic source. These energetic parameters are then injected into an identification technique based on the independent component analysis technique allowing the reconstruction of original sources. The method was applied to a cylindrical rigid-lined-rigid duct element. A comparison between the estimated and imposed acoustic pressures emitted by point sources is presented. This comparison showed that the proposed method gives good results, and the original signals are well reconstructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To analyze the centrifugal pump NS32 using numerical model and predicting the performance of a fluid flow in complexes geometry, we conduct several numerical simulation with different turbulence models. To evaluate the effect of turbulence model on the flow characteristics, the k- $${\varepsilon}$$ , SST and SST-CC turbulence models were tested. The simulations have been made using the multiple reference frames (MRF) technique to take into account the impeller-volute interaction. The computational domain is composed of two parts, a stator (volute) and a rotor (impeller). The impeller-volute interaction has been simulated using the frozen-rotor interface model for the steady-state calculations and the Rotor-Stator model for the unsteady ones. The distributions of velocity and pressure are computed using the Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes approach for a wide range of operating flow rates. To analyze the internal flow, simulation was carried out for several relative positions between the impeller blades and the volute tongue. In fact, the pressure fluctuations were numerically measured at five locations along the impeller and compared to experimental measurements. In addition, the unsteady pressure head evolution versus time was followed up. Then, an experimental validation of global and local characteristics of the pump was carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let S be a compact hyperbolic Riemann surface of genus $${g \geq 2}$$ . We call a systole a shortest simple closed geodesic in S and denote by $${{\rm sys}(S)}$$ its length. Let $${{\rm msys}(g)}$$ be the maximal value that $${{\rm sys}(\cdot)}$$ can attain among the compact Riemann surfaces of genus g. We call a ( globally) maximal surface S a compact Riemann surface of genus g whose systole has length $${{\rm msys}(g)}$$ . In Section 2 we use cutting and pasting techniques to construct compact hyperbolic Riemann surfaces with large systoles from maximal surfaces. This enables us to prove several inequalities relating $${{\rm msys}(\cdot)}$$ of different genera. In Section 3 we derive similar intersystolic inequalities for non-compact hyperbolic Riemann surfaces with cusps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driver fatigue is one of the leading causes of road accidents. It affects the mental vigilance of the driver and reduces his personal capacity to drive a vehicle in full safety. These factors increase the risk of human errors which could involve deaths and wounds. Consequently, the development of an automatic system, which controls the driver fatigue and prevents him from accidents in advance, has received a growing interest. In this work, we have proposed a fusion system for drowsiness detection based on blinking measurement and the 3D head pose estimation. We have studied the driver's eye behaviors by analysing a non-stationary and non-linear signal and we estimate the head rotation in the three directions $$Yaw$$ , $$Pitch$$ , and $$Roll$$ by exploiting only three interest points of the face. Our suggested system of fusion presents three levels of drowsiness: awake, tired, and very tired. This system is evaluated by both $$DEAP$$ and $$MiraclHB$$ databases. The evaluation shows many promising results and shows the effectiveness of the suggested approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrochemical oxidation of synthetic wastewater which contains biazo dye [amido black (AB)] on boron-doped diamond anode, 'BDD anode,' was experimentally investigated to determine the influence of several operative parameters on the performance of the process. The study focalized on the effect of studied parameters on discoloration process and the degradation of the aromatic part of the dye molecule. Two distinct pathways with two different kinetics were observed. The decrease of pH improves the discoloration rate and the degradation of aromatic by-products after 90 min of electrolysis. The increase of current density has a considerable effect on discoloration and a little less effect on the aromatic derivative degradation. Hypochlorite electrogenerated from chloride addition exceptionally accelerates the discoloration, but it does not degrade aromatic derivatives as efficiently. It was observed that nitrates addition generates under electrolysis other derivates of AB as different colors than the dye one. The current efficiency depends very little on the initial pH; however, higher energy consumptions are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adsorption of inhibitor molecules, ascorbic acid (SA), and 1-hydroxyethane-1,1-diphosphonic acid (HEDP), was studied using electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance. Adsorption on iron was studied compared with gold in the presence of chloride ions and at E and cathodic potential. Each of these parameters significantly affects monolayer adsorption following the Langmuir isotherm. HEDP was adsorbed more rapidly than SA. The novelty in this study concerns the influence of chloride concentration on the inhibition efficiency. Indeed, the rate of inhibition also depends on the concentration ratio of chloride/inhibitor, which is an important factor for the practical implementation of these compounds. Adding a small quantity of chloride ions can increase adsorption rate as well as degree of coverage. Optimum behavior was noted for a HEDP/Cl ratio about 500. Passivation of the electrode to cathodic potential influenced HEDP adsorption and promoted that of SA. A low adsorption current proportional to the concentration of the inhibitor was recorded. A synergic inhibition by the two molecules was observed for a concentration relationship of 1.16. The study showed that SA was not adsorbed at the interface but its presence made a reduction in lateral tensions possible between adsorbed HEDP, leading to a better coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic geochemistry analysis and formation fluid overpressure study have been performed on several oil well data located to the northern part of the Ghadames Basin (southern Tunisia Saharan platform). The main results of this work highlight the important role of overpressured interval in hydrocarbon accumulation. In fact, the analysis of the Paleozoic-Mesozoic petroleum systems in Southern Tunisia shows that the hydrocarbons generated by Ordovician and Silurian source rocks migrate upward following fault systems or through the major Hercynian unconformity to finally accumulates in structural or stratigraphic traps. These migration pathways provide favorable conditions to fill up the Silurian, Devonian, or Triassic reservoirs. The overpressured zone located above Triassic reservoir constitutes a continuous and efficient seal to hydrocarbon trap structures. So the overpressure plays the role of hydraulic seal advantaging oil and gas accumulation in the Ghadames Basin associated with the impermeable (evaporites) and then stopping any upward migration of natural hydrocarbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomonitoring of effects in agricultural workers is necessary to assess the individual risk of handling pesticides. In this study, biochemical and haematological parameters were measured to evaluate the effects of exposure to these compounds in agricultural workers. The study was carried out in 110 workers and 97 control subjects. Several haematological and biochemical parameters were analysed. Assessment of haematological parameters revealed that the mean cell volume and haematocrit levels were significantly lower in workers than in controls (P=0.002 and 0.013, respectively), while mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentrations were higher in workers (P<0.001). There was also a significant inhibition of butyrylcholinesterase activity in workers compared with that in controls (P<0.001). Assessment of biochemical parameters further showed significantly higher activities of transferases, lactate dehydrogenase (P<0.001), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (P=0.006) and creatine kinase (CK) (P<0.015), as well as higher levels of proteins (P<0.001), creatinine (P=0.001) and urea (P=0.001) in workers compared with controls, along with significantly higher uric acid levels (P=0.012). Furthermore, the number of years exposed to pesticides predicted higher activities of alanine aminotransferase, CK, ALP, as well as uric acid levels. Overall, chronic exposure to pesticides appeared to affect several biochemical parameters. These biomarkers seem to be indicative of adverse effects of pesticides in agricultural workers, confirming their use for routine monitoring of effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When handling combinatorial optimization problems, we try to get the optimal arrangement of discrete entities so that the requirements and the constraints are satisfied. These problems become more and more important in various industrial and academic fields. So, over the past years, several techniques have been proposed to solve them. In this paper, we are interested in the single machine scheduling problem with Sequence-Dependent Setup Times, which can be solved through different approaches. We present a hybrid algorithm which combines Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure and Differential Evolution for tackling this problem. Our algorithm is tested on benchmark instances from the literature. The computational experiments prove the efficiency of this algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The protection against the corrosion of the carbon steel in aqueous environment by commercial inhibitors, based of nitrite and alkanolamine, has been studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and several analytic methods. An inhibitor's efficiency has been determined with the two compounds on polished surface in presence of softened water. The results show that the two inhibitors act by the formation of protective layer on interface steel/electrolyte but the efficiency is more important in the case of the nitrite compound thanks to the formation of film with thickness estimated by Atomic force microscopy (AFM) at 0.8 μm after 102 days of immersion. In the case of the nitrites, the inhibitor film is a porous layer, weak conductor and presents a considerable increase of the charge transfer resistance with time. This is a result of an interest protection of the surface against corrosion. The low frequencies limit ( L) reaches about 150 kOhm cm after 59 days of immersion. In the case of the alkanolamine, XPS (X-Rray Spectroscopy) show that the film formed is richer of Fe ions but is offered a considerable protection of the interface, its thickness is about 0.26 μm and L reaches about 35.5 kOhm cm after 61 days of immersion. The influence of surface state is discussed in this paper, in fact on raw surface steel, no inhibitor efficiency is observed. A few protections are given with a crude surface in contact with water softened in presence of the nitrite compound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We give an effective process to discribe explicitly the systols of an hyperbolic surface depending on his Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of certain non-toxic inhibitors on the corrosion resistance of ordinary steel in chloride solution (2 × 10-2 M NaCl) at pH 8 was studied by polarisation curves, Raman spectroscopy and the electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM). The inhibitors tested were ascorbic acid salts (SA) and 1-hydroxyethylidene, 1-diphosphonic acid salts (SHEDP), the results from addition inhibtors are carried in order to expect a combined effect. The polarisation curves indicated an improvement in polarisation resistance with the addition of SA or SHEDP alone. In the presence of (SA + SHEDP), the inhibiting effect were further improved. Raman spectroscopy analyses confirmed the presence of a film formed by the two inhibitors at the iron electrode surface. The individual behaviour of each inhibiteur was studied with EQCM for different chloride concentrations. The maximum of mass variation was obtained for a lower concentration in the case of SHEDP. The adsorption coverage was calculated. The Langmuir-Freundlich isotherm model is used to fit adsorption of the inhibitors. Interactions between adsorbed species were detected for SHEDP case. For inhibitor mixture, detected mass attained plateau for low(er) inhibitors concentration mixture. At higher concentration, the mass quantity was smaller than that calculated from the sum of detected mass for each alone coumpound. However it provided better protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurements of broadband ultrasonic attenuation (BUA) represent an established means of skeletal status assessment in osteoporosis. Today, the skeletal site that is the most widely used clinically is the calcaneus (heel bone). However, we hypothesized that fracture risk predictions could be improved if ultrasound measurements were performed directly at the main site of fracture, e.g., the proximal femur. The goal of this paper is to demonstratein vitrothe feasibility of quantitative ultra sound (QUS) imaging at the upper part of fee femur, and to investigate the relationships of BUA to bone mineral density (BMD). Forty-four excise human femurs were measured in transmission with a pair of focused 0.5-MHz central frequency transducers. Two-dimensional scans were performed, and the radio frequency (rf) signals were recorded at each measurement point. A data acceptance criterion for region of interest (ROI) selection was established based on the linearity of the frequency-dependent attenuation. Five measurements with repositioning were performed on each sample to determine the reproducibility. Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans have been performed on the samples for BMD measurements: Three ROIs were selected in the specimens: greater, trochanter intertrochanteric, and femoral neck regions. Coefficient of variations were in the range 1.6% to 2.5 %. The determination coefficients (r2) between BUA and BMD in site-matched ROIs were 0.81, 0.78, and 0.73, respectively, for the greater trochanteric, intertrochanteric, and femoral neck regions. Our results are consistent with data previously shown at the calcaneus and demonstrate the feasibility of QUS measurements at the femurin vitro, with reasonable reproducibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented which reports a study that evaluates the possible role of Noxa, a proapoptotic member of the Bcl-2 protein family in the apoptosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells induced in vitro by hyperforin or flavopiridol.