Publications

: Dans cet entretien, Dre Verónica ESTAY STANGE répond aux questions relatives à la post-mémoire en tant que phénomène scriptural, de fa\c con générale, puis en l’inscrivant dans le contexte de la littérature maghrébine francophone. Elle commence par justifier la circonscription pluridisciplinaire de la post-mémoire et son impact discursif et esthétique. Puis elle parle des paramètres qui aident à distinguer entre les écrits mémoriaux et post-mémoriaux. Elle a souligné aussi la relation entre l’absence du souvenir du traumatisme et la mémoire qui n’est plus passive. Enfin, elle a parlé de la possibilité de l’existence d’une fonction thérapeutique liée à l’écriture post-mémorielle.

Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is a group of chronic heterogenous disorders that manifests as joint inflammation in patients aged <16 years. Globally, approximately 3 million children and young adults are suffering from JIA with prevalence rates consistently higher in girls. The region of Africa and Middle East constitute a diverse group of ethnicities, socioeconomic conditions, and climates which influence the prevalence of JIA. There are only a few studies published on epidemiology of JIA in the region. There is an evident paucity of adequate and latest data from the region. This review summarizes the available data on the prevalence of JIA and its subtypes in Africa and Middle East and discusses unmet needs for patients in this region. A total of 8 journal publications were identified concerning epidemiology and 42 articles describing JIA subtypes from Africa and Middle East were included. The prevalence of JIA in Africa and Middle East was observed to be towards the lower range of the global estimate. We observed that the most prevalent subtype in the region was oligoarticular arthritis. The incidence of uveitis and anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) positivity were found to be lower as compared to the incidence from other regions. There is a huge unmet medical need in the region for reliable epidemiological data, disease awareness, having regional and local treatment guidelines and timely diagnosis. Paucity of the pediatric rheumatologists and economic disparities also contribute to the challenges regarding the management of JIA.

Colistin is one of the last-line therapies against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens, especially carbapenemase-producing isolates, making resistance to this compound a major global public-health crisis. Until recently, colistin resistance in Gram-negative bacteria was known to arise only by chromosomal mutations. However, a plasmid-mediated colistin resistance mechanism was described in late 2015. This mechanism is encoded by different mobile colistin resistance (mcr) genes that encode phosphoethanolamine (pEtN) transferases. These enzymes catalyse the addition of a pEtN moiety to lipid A in the bacterial outer membrane leading to colistin resistance. MCR-producing Gram-negative bacteria have been largely disseminated worldwide. However, their environmental dissemination has been underestimated. Indeed, water environments act as a connecting medium between different environments, allowing them to play a crucial role in the spread of antibiotic resistance between the natural environment and humans and other animals. For a better understanding of the role of such environments as reservoirs and/or dissemination routes of mcr genes, this review discusses primarily the various water habitats contributing to the spread of antibiotic resistance. Thereafter, we provide an overview of existing knowledge regarding the global epidemiology of mcr genes in water environments. This review confirms the global distribution of mcr genes in several water environments, including wastewater from different origins, surface water and tap water, making these environments reservoirs and dissemination routes of concern for this resistance mechanism.

Au cours des dernières années, les entreprises sont émergées dans un environnement concurrentiel avancé. Afin de répondre aux exigences de réduction des coûts, la demande des clients, les délais imposés, la qualité et l'amélioration de la variété, les entreprises doivent améliorer leur performance pour rester compétitives, survivre et se développer. Pour atteindre cet objectif, plusieurs modèles sont utilisés comme TQM (Total Quality Management), Kaizen, JAT (Just A Time), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), BPR (Business Process Reengineering) et Six Sigma, etc. Dans ce travail, nous nous sommes focalisés sur des modèles efficaces (aspirés de l’approche Six Sigma,) utilisés principalement pour justifier la compétitivité d'une entreprise. On s’intéresse particulièrement aux modèles DMAIC (Définir, Mesurer, Analyser, Innover et Contrôler, le modèle DPMO pondéré (défauts par million d'Opportunité) et au modèle ROF (Rendement optimal des flux. Ces modèles sont appliqués pour mesurer les niveaux de processus et d'évaluer la compétitivité de l'entreprise. Les résultats de ces modèles sont appliqués dans deux systèmes industriels de fabrication du ciment et des bouteilles à gaz.

The human color skin image database called SFA, specifically designed to assist research in the area of face recognition, constitutes a very important means particularly for the challenging task of skin detection. It has showed high performances comparing to other existing databases. SFA database provides multiple skin and non-skin samples, which in various combinations with each other allow creating new samples that could be useful and more effective. This particular aspect will be investigated, in the present paper, by creating four new representative skin samples according to the four rules of minimum, maximum, mean and median. The obtained samples will be exploited for the purpose of skin segmentation on the basis of the well-known Euclidean and Manhattan distance metrics. Thereafter, performances of the new representative skin samples versus performances of those skin samples, originally provided by SFA, will be illustrated. Simulation results in both SFA and UTD (University of Texas at Dallas) color face databases indicate that detection rates higher than 92% can be achieved with either measure.

The human color skin image database called SFA, specifically designed to assist research in the area of face recognition, constitutes a very important means particularly for the challenging task of skin detection. It has showed high performances comparing to other existing databases. SFA database provides multiple skin and non-skin samples, which in various combinations with each other allow creating new samples that could be useful and more effective. This particular aspect will be investigated, in the present paper, by creating four new representative skin samples according to the four rules of minimum, maximum, mean and median. The obtained samples will be exploited for the purpose of skin segmentation on the basis of the well-known Euclidean and Manhattan distance metrics. Thereafter, performances of the new representative skin samples versus performances of those skin samples, originally provided by SFA, will be illustrated. Simulation results in both SFA and UTD (University of Texas at Dallas) color face databases indicate that detection rates higher than 92% can be achieved with either measure.

Ephedra altissima Desf. est une plante médicinale de la famille des Ephedraceae, largement utilisée en médecine traditionnelle pour le traitement des maladies respiratoires et le diabète. L’objectif de la présente étude est l’évaluation des activités biologiques in vitro et la caractérisation phytochimique des extraits (éther de pétrole, acétate d’éthyle et n-butanol) obtenus à partir de la plante Ephedra altissima. Des dosages colorimétriques ont été effectués pour révéler la présence de différentes classes de métabolites secondaires. La détermination des teneurs en polyphénols, flavonoïdes et tanins condensés a été réalisée par des dosages spectrophotométriques. L’activité antioxydante a été évaluée par huit méthodes différentes, l’activité anti-artéritiques a été réalisée par la méthode d’inhibition de la dénaturation du sérum d’albumine bovin, les activités inhibitrices de l’α-amylase et de la lipase pancréatique in vitro ont été estimées par des méthodes colorimétriques en utilisant de l'amidon et du p-nitrophényl butyrate en tant que substrats. Les conditions physiologiques de la digestion humaine ont été simulées par le modèle de la digestion gastro-intestinale (DGI) in vitro. L’activité antibactérienne a été déterminée par la méthode de diffusion sur disques en milieu gélosé contre sept souches bacteriennes. L’analyse et la quantification des composés phénoliques ont été effectuées par LC-DAD-ESI/MS. L’investigation phytochimique de l’extrait n-butanolique a été réalisée par l’utilisation en alternance de diverses méthodes chromatographiques (VLC, CC, CCE et CCM). Les structures des deux composés isolés A et B ont été identifiées par analyse spectroscopique ESI-MS, l’UV et la RMN dans ses multiples techniques, RMN 1H, RMN 13C, et RMN 2D (COSY, HSQC, HMBC et TOCSY). A l’issue de ces travaux, nous retiendrons la richesse de cette plante en métabolites secondaires. En effet, l’extrait AcOEt présente la teneur la plus élevée en polyphénols (125,62 μg EAG mg-1), et le n-BuOH possède la teneur la plus élevée en flavonoïdes (19,18 μg EQ mg-1). Tous les extraits ont des activités antioxydantes dans divers systèmes et l'extrait aqueux a montré une bonne activité antioxydante par la méthode potentiométrique. L’extrait AcOEt exhibe la plus forte activité anti-artéritique, activités inhibitrices de de l’α-amylase et de la lipase pancréatique avec des valeurs de CI50 (126,4 ± 2,36, 8,07 ± 0,15 et 289,1 ± 0,53 μg/ml) respectivement. Tous les extraits testés exercent une activité antibactérienne dose dépendante contre au moins trois souches avec des CMI allant de (3,12 à 50 μg/ml). L’analyse par LC-DAD-ESI/MS a permis de détecter la présence de dix-neuf composés différents, huit sont des acides phénoliques simples et des dérivés d'acide phénolique, et onze sont des flavonoïdes liés à des groupes glycosyles. L’investigation phytochimique réalisée sur l’extrait n-batanolique conduit à l’isolement et identification structurale de deux flavonoides glycosylés nommés : Isorhamnétine 3-O- α-L-rhamnopyranosyl (1’’’-6’’)- β-D-galactopyranoside et Kaempférol 3-O- α-L-rhamnopyranosyl (1’’’-6’’)- β-D-glucopyranoside.

The Biocheck.UGent scoring system was developed to measure and quantify the level of biosecurity in animal husbandry. This tool is composed of all the relevant elements of biosecurity in poultry farms (broilers and laying hens) and is subdivided into external and internal biosecurity. The peculiarity of this scoring system is that it takes into account the relative importance of the different aspects of biosecurity, resulting in a risk-weighted score. The biosecurity scores obtained are provided immediately after completing the questionnaire and the scores for each sub-category can be compared to global averages to allow the poultry farmer to compare the results obtained and correct any anomalies that are on their farm. In Algeria, preliminary results from a survey in poultry houses of 30.000 laying hens show a wide range of biosecurity levels on that farm, with internal biosecurity scores ranging from 6 to 72% and external biosecurity scores ranging from 28 to 92% in the subgroups. The overall scores were 50% and 54%, respectively. These early results show that despite the well-known importance of biosecurity, there is a lack of implementation of many biosecurity measures.

The Mio-Plio-Quaternary groundwater of Mchira-Teleghma suffers from an increasing rate of salinity especially in the northwestern part. To identify the reason for the water’s salinity and its aptitude for irrigation, physico-chemical analyses of 20 water samples, which were based on the different physical and chemical parameters (electric conductivity EC, pH, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, HCO₃⁻, Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻, NO₃⁻ and Sr²⁺), were carried out during the period of October 2015. This study showed disquieting anomalies of electric conductivity that reached the value of 4376.14 µS cm⁻¹. The statistical analyses, the multivariate statistics: the principal component analysis, Q-mode cluster analyses, Sr²⁺/Ca²⁺ ratio and water type showed that the hydrochemistry of Mchira-Teleghma groundwater is controlled by the dissolution of carbonate rocks and the leaching of evaporite processes, which proved that these anomalies of the MPQ groundwater’s salinity of Mchira-Teleghma are mainly determined by the leaching of Triassic gypsum formations process. This hydrogeochemical process generates an unsuitable quality of water based on Wilcox’s and Water Quality Index’s methods, whereas Richard’s method classifies all water samples to C3S1 and C4S1 classes as they are recommended to be used with salt-tolerant species in well-drained and leached soils.

The Mio-Plio-Quaternary groundwater of Mchira-Teleghma suffers from an increasing rate of salinity especially in the northwestern part. To identify the reason for the water’s salinity and its aptitude for irrigation, physico-chemical analyses of 20 water samples, which were based on the different physical and chemical parameters (electric conductivity EC, pH, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, HCO₃⁻, Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻, NO₃⁻ and Sr²⁺), were carried out during the period of October 2015. This study showed disquieting anomalies of electric conductivity that reached the value of 4376.14 µS cm⁻¹. The statistical analyses, the multivariate statistics: the principal component analysis, Q-mode cluster analyses, Sr²⁺/Ca²⁺ ratio and water type showed that the hydrochemistry of Mchira-Teleghma groundwater is controlled by the dissolution of carbonate rocks and the leaching of evaporite processes, which proved that these anomalies of the MPQ groundwater’s salinity of Mchira-Teleghma are mainly determined by the leaching of Triassic gypsum formations process. This hydrogeochemical process generates an unsuitable quality of water based on Wilcox’s and Water Quality Index’s methods, whereas Richard’s method classifies all water samples to C3S1 and C4S1 classes as they are recommended to be used with salt-tolerant species in well-drained and leached soils.